


Fall From Grace

by MidoriFlowersEwe



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Asano saved through the power of friendship, Drunk Nagisa, Friendship, Gen, Karma being a little shit, Originally written in like 2015 or something, The Chairman's intentions are ambigous
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2018-10-11 18:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10471104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidoriFlowersEwe/pseuds/MidoriFlowersEwe
Summary: After class A are completely beaten by the E class on the finals, the Chairman decides to set an example; He punishes his son for loosing first place to Karma Akabane by sending him to E class. How will the former student council president survive in the class he used to look down on? Will Gakushu be able to become an assassin, or will his disdain for E class hold him back?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this was published on Fanfiction . net back in June 2015. So the writing isn't the best. Plus I am very lazy at proof-reading.  
> Still I hope you enjoy and comment to let me know what you think!

"Father! You can't be serious!" Asano exclaimed, clenching his fists to prevent himself from hitting something. His father just gave him a condescending grin.  
"Oh, I am Deadly serious, Son, starting from tomorrow you will be the newest member of the E class." The Principle said, fixing his son with a cold hard glare. Asano gritted his teeth.  
"I may have lost my number one spot to that delinquent Akabane, but I still have the highest grades in the main school, I- "  
"You failed to reach my expectations." The chairman said curtly, cutting him of. "And you have failed to reach them all year, E class is the place for failures."  
Now it was Asano's turn to grin, although it didn't hold much humour. "Failures? If I recall correctly, they dominated the top fifty places and disproved your education model." He said, as much as he hated loosing to Karma, it was almost worth it to finally see his father defeated.  
"It wasn't my education model that failed." The Chairman said, his voice low and dangerous. He suddenly seemed to have a dark aura about him. "It was the A class that failed themselves, getting too confident so that they didn't try to defeat the enemy with all their might. You will be the sacrifice to show the rest of the school that anyone can fall from grace if they fail to sharpen their blade."  
"My, what a desperate attempt to try and regain control." Asano replied, his voice icy. Despite how calm he seemed, inside he was furious. His father was just trying to punish him for siding with E class! He hated the Chairman's ability to make even the most absurd decision sound logical when he was doing it for petty reasons.  
The chairman stood up out of his chair, and walked over to were his son was standing.  
"Now, there's no need to be so upset. I'm sure you'll enjoy your time in E class." The Principle chuckled, his tone patronizing. He stood over his son, staring down at him. Asano refused to meet his eyes, and instead focused his attentions ahead, his eyes fixed on the window. "And you'll finally get to meet the secret of E class you were so keen to find out."

That caught Asano's attention. "So, there really is a secret about E class?" He said. "What makes you think I'm so naive I wont use it against you?"

"It's a matter of national secrecy. If you try to blackmail me with it, you'll be committing a crime." The Chairman replied. Asano's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"What on earth could you be hiding that even the Government is involved?" He asked, now he was really interested. The Chairman just chuckled again.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough. You will be the newest class E member, after all."


	2. The Establishing chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gakushuu finally finds out what his father's been hiding at the old satellite campus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't read this in about a year, so quality cannot be assured.

Asano stood outside the classroom door in the derelict mountain hut that was class E's school building, building up the resolve to open it.

He hadn't bothered to say goodbye to any of his friends in A class- sure, he was super popular, but most people only admired him because he was number one in the school and student council president. Well, he'd lost that now.  
Telling his classmates about his exile from the main campus was just too humiliating, anyway, he was sure even the rest of the big five would scorn him once they discovered his fall from grace.  
Before he started at in E class, he had to attend a secret meeting, and sign a confidentiality agreement.  
A man in a suit who didn't give his name explained to him that class E's teacher wasn't human, that he was a monster who destroyed the moon, and that It was class E's goal to assassinate him before the end of the year. He'd been given a green rubber knife and a pellet gun that apparently worked against the so called 'target'.  
Asano was shocked into silence for once- that explained what happened to the moon, and all the strange sightings in the town. But wasn't it a bit too absurd?  
He half expected it to be an elaborate prank from his father, but the chairman didn't have a shred  
of anything resembling a sense of humour, so that would be impossible.  
Biting back his apprehension, Asano opened the door.  
The reaction was immediate; the members of the class went from chatting amongst themselves waiting for lesson to start, to going deadly silent as soon as they noticed Asano had walked in.

"What's up, second place?" Karma asked. Asano gritted his teeth at the nickname. "Did you get lost? Your classroom is about five miles down the hill!"

"Heh, did you come to challenge us to another duel between our classes? You enjoy being beaten that much? Were are the rest of the big five?" Terasaka said, with a triumphant grin.  
"Is there something you need to talk about, Asano?" Isogai asked, with a polite smile, ever the diplomat. He might be in class E, but Asano almost admired the way he kept his friendly helpful disposition in even the most trying situations. The former student council president sighed- preparing himself to tell them the news, when suddenly there was a sound like a whip cracking, and a blast of air.  
"Hello boys and girls! I hope that you've all been working hard on your laws of motion! because as promised, we have a pop quiz today!" A upbeat male voice said. Asano stared at the being that had just flown into the classroom in horror; It was like a giant yellow octopus, wearing ridicules black teacher's robes complete with a motor-board. The thing had a massive round globular head, with a wide toothy grin and beady black eyes.  
Instinctively, Asano stepped away, his back against the door- he didn't know what was more shocking; The monstrous yellow creature, or the fact the rest of class E didn't look at all surprised by it's sudden appearance.  
"Ah, Asano!" The thing spoke, although it's mouth didn't move. "The chairman mentioned you'd be joining us; I'm koro-sensi, I'll be your teacher from here on out, welcome to E class! I hope you enjoy your time here!"  
Asano gaped at him- so this thing was his teacher, the one he was suppose to kill?  
They stared at him in disbelief. He saw both looks of sympathy and looks of hatred, but most of class E just looked shocked.

"What? This jackass can't join the class! He just looks down on us!" Terasaka called out, Muramatsu and Kirara nodded in agreement. Karma looked like he was laughing his ass of. Asano clenched his fists- this was so humiliating, he cursed his father for the tenth time that day.  
"Now, I know you have a history with Asano, but he's a member of E class now, so I want you to make him feel welcome." Koro-sensi said, he turned his big yellow balloon head to Asano, who was edging away from the door. "Now I know you all know each other, but why don't you re-introduce yourself, Asano?"  
Fuelled by his feelings of shame and anger, Asano stared straight ahead at the E class. He replaced his frustrated grimace with his usual arrogant smirk, refusing to look weak.  
"My name is Gakushu Asano, and I'm going to kill this yellow octopus, regain my place as the school's number one, and prove I don't belong here." He said calmly, and then walked over to the empty chair that would be his new desk, ignoring his classmates reactions.  
For the rest of the lesson, Asano just tried to focus on learning. Nobody else seemed freaked out by the yellow monster that was suppose to be a teacher, so it wouldn't do for him to act like he was.

Even though he was the strangest thing Asano had ever seen, Koro-sensi was admittedly and excellent teacher; They were going over a complicated concept in physics, but he broke it down in a way everyone could understand. Asano, of course, already knew SUVAT equations, but still, it was impressive.  
But what he was more interested in learning, is what exactly Koro-sensi is, he was sure there'd be some interesting science behind that.  
Gakushuu's concentration was broken when a paper aeroplane hit the back of his head. Scowling, he turned around to see Karma smirking at him.  
He should of known.

"What?" Gakushuu hissed, which just made Karma's grin widen.

"Hey, I'm just making sure you're okay. You looked pretty terrified when you first saw the octopus. Were you scared?" Karma taunted. Even though Asano knew Karma was just doing it to provoke him, it didn't stop it from working.

"I most certainly was not- "Suddenly, there was another whoosh of air. One second Koro-sensi was lecturing at the front of the classroom, the next he was in-between Karma and Gakushuu, his massive form wedged into the space between their two desks.

"Now boys, I'm sure your both excited to get to know each other better, but disrupting the class is against the rules!" Koro-Sensi declared, friendly but firm. He yellow face turned orange with a red cross on it for a moment as he spoke. 'What the hell'.

"Yeah you two gingers! Stop distracting us with your pissing contest!" Teraska grumbled, Karma gave him a playful smirk.

"Eh~ like you were paying attention anyway, weren't you just looking through Itona's dirty magazines under the desk?" The red head said. Terasaka blushed, his face contorting into a mask of anger.

"Karma you bastard! I wasn't looking I uh- "  
Koro-Sensi grabbed the magazine from under Terasaka's desk so quickly Asano didn't even see it happen.

"Material like this is definitely not allowed in school!" The teacher yelled, before slyly taking a peek inside the offending porn mag, his face changed from yellow to pink.  
Wait, was the octopus into the kind of stuff? "So I'll just confiscate this.. And put it in my draw.. "  
The class gave him a knowing look.

"A- anyway back to physics! No more distractions or it's extra homework for all of you!"  
The class groaned. Asano frowned, confused; How could a classroom be so.. Friendly? Even though they were learning, the atmosphere was still like a group of buddies having banter. It was never like this in the main school; The teachers just listed of things out of the text book, and nobody dared talk out of turn for fear they'd be left behind.  
Not that Gakushuu liked this class or anything! He just had to kill this stupid teacher so he could leave. He'd been given a pellet gun and a knife to use against him, how hard could it be?

When Koro-Sensi finished his lecture, and the class was given a question sheet to work through, Asano decided to try his first attempt.  
He raised his hand. "Sensi, I don't really understand question five, could you explain?" He asked. Asking for help was almost physically painful, he made a point not to do it, under normal circumstances, because needing help means your weak.  
Before he had a chance to blink, Koro-Sensi was suddenly standing right in front of him.

"Ah, yes, that one is quite difficult." The teacher started to say, when as quick as a flash, Asano tilted the pellet gun he'd hidden under the desk, and pulled the trigger.  
There was yet another blast of air, and suddenly Koro-Sensi was gone.  
For one wild impossible moment, Asano thought there might be a chance that he'd actually killed him. Then he felt a gentle pressure on the top of his head, and whipped around to see Koro-Sensi standing behind him, green bands running across his head. Somehow, his face had a look of superiority.  
Dammit

"Nyrufufufu." He snickered, patting Asano on the head. "I commend your effort in trying to kill me so soon after you arrived, Asano-kun, but if it were that easy the E-class would of killed me months ago! From the beginning, your assassination attempt was flawed- A student with your ability wouldn't ask for help on that question unless they had an ulterior motive."

Instead of looking frustrated, Asano smirked "Of course." He said, as if this was his plan all along. "I knew I could never kill you with that simple method. But I couldn't help but at least try, I wanted to test if your speed was really as impressive as they say."

"Is that so? Well, I hope my speed was impressive enough for you!" Koro-Sensi said, before returning to the front of the classroom.  
Nagisa glanced back at the commotion behind him and sighed- Asano was so much like his father in that neither would ever admit defeat. He just hoped Asano would turn out to be a little less crazy than the chairman, one person driving a bulldozer through the building and playing grenade roulette was enough.


	3. PE

PE was one lesson Gakushu was actually looking forward to; He'd noticed a stark increase in E class' physical abilities from the few times he'd seen them perform at Sports events, now he knew why- Their Assassination training. As much as he hated being in this class, Asano was always hungry to learn new things, especially if they would help him become more powerful.

He followed the rest of the class outside into the sweltering heat (He suddenly missed the main building's air conditioned sports hall), staying near the back. He'd been keeping quiet since his failed assassination attempt.

"Alright class, I'm going to be testing your agility survival and teamwork tactics." A teacher with black spiky hair said, walking out from the building. Asano recognized him from the all-school assemblies, Mr Karasuma, if recalled. Despite the heat Mr Karasuma was wearing a shirt and black suit-pants, his expression was serious and didn't display any sign of discomfort. "Although these may not seem like they'll directly aid your assassination in this case, having versatility is an important; You never know what skills will aid you when the time comes."

A murmur of excitement ran through the class.

"So how're you gonna test us exactly, sensei?" Maehara asked with a grin. E class was seriously fired up for this.

"The class will be split into teams of four. You each will have your own colour: Your mission? To retrieve the flag that I've planted somewhere within a 50m radius of the lake in the middle of the forrest." Mr Karasuma explained. "You can take out members of other teams by 'tagging' them with your anti-sensei knives. But as always, safety first."

So that's what those green rubber knives are called, Asano thought. This sounded interesting- in A class sport wasn't taken very seriously (they got into the class for their academics, not their physical prowess, after all.) Whether it was team sports or individual matches there wasn't a single person that Asano couldn't beat. But Assassination training in E class would definitely prove more of a challenge.

Mr Karasuma went through the list of students, splitting them of into groups. He stopped when he reached Asano's name, and looked up.

"Asano? So you really have joined E class?" Karasuma said, looking surprised for a moment. "Non the less, it wont be safe for you to take part in this activity since you haven't had the free-running training the rest of the class has had."  
"Now wait a minuet! I'm perfectly capable." Asano argued; No way was he going to be treated like an invalid! He was just as capable as the rest of the class. "I used to do competitive rock-climbing and I've never lost a tournament, so I'll be able to participate."  
"Show of.." Maehara muttered.  
Karasuma sighed in deliberation; He'd seen this kid's moves at the sports festival, he was definitely above average in physical strength. Plus, this far into the year they couldn't be holding back with training.  
"Fine, I'll allow it. But you'll be in Isogai's group; You better play it safe and do what he tells you." Karasuma decided, if there was one person he trusted to keep watch over someone as obstinate as Asano, it was the class rep. "You alright with that, Isogai?"  
"Y- Yeah sure." Isogai said, ever the people pleaser. Asano was sure it had to be an act; who could be that considerate all the time?

In the end, Asano found himself in a group with Isogai, a pretty girl with strawberry blonde hair and green eyes named Kurahashi, and a shy girl who's black hair was tied into plaits named Okuda. Okuda was the one who beat Koyoma out in science at midterms, although she certainly didn't give of the mad scientist vibe the same way that guy did. Both the girls were quite petite, not exactly what he'd pick for a team, but they'd have to do.

"Okay class, everyone line up in your groups at the edge of the forest." Karasuma commanded, once the groups were all sorted out. Asano walked over with the rest of the class feeling an odd thrill of excitement seeing the expanse of the forest in front of him, and feeling the rubber knife in his hand. This someone felt more real, more immediate that the countless sports competitions he'd been to throughout his life.

"On my mark you can go. However, you can't begin the 'killing' of other groups until ten minuets into the game, at that time I will set of a flare." Karasuma explained. "And I'll be watching from above, so don't even think about cheating. And I'll say it again; safety first."

"Yes Sir!" Class E called out in unison. The stood tensely at the edge of the forest eager for the signal.  
Karma caught Asano's eye as they waited, and sent a playful grin his way, but the look in his eye was serious. Asano smirked back at him.  
Fine then, bring it on, Akabane.

"Ready... Go!" Karasuma called out, and without wasting a second everyone from the class sprinted forward into the forrest.  
The girls in his team, Kurahashi and Okana were a lot faster than Asano expected; This must be the result of all their training.  
The other groups became less visible as the tree's got denser, and the air around them grew darker as the leaves blocked out the light. There was something exhilarating about it.  
"Okay, so here's the plan." Isogai said, "I'll run on ahead and scout out the area, both you girls stay a few meters behind me, and Asano your behind them guarding the rear."

"I can't say I like taking orders from you." Asano grumbled, disgruntled; He was used to being in charge with everyone besides his father. Even his old teachers basically bowed to his authority.  
"I understand, but really that positioning makes the most sense, since you don't know this mountain well I need to be the one to lead the way." Isogai explained patiently.  
"And that way you can pick out a route that doesn't involve any climbs and jumps that an amateur like me can't handle." Asano said sarcastically, recognising Isogai's plan.

"There's nothing wrong with keeping yourself safe, you know. Our best mode of action is to focus on defense and to retrieve the flag without engaging in combat." The hazel-eyed Class Rep explained.

"Fine, I'll follow your plan while I see it as the best option." Asano said, slowing down and allowing Kurahashi and Okuda to overtake him. Asano decided he had to win this game to prove to E class he was just as competent and worthy as them even if he hadn't had the training.

Asano expected the game to be over quickly, but even ten minuets after the red flare had been fired, their team had yet to encounter another group.

A Fifty meter radius doesn't sound all that big an area, but when your running through forest so thick you can hardly see five meters in front of you it becomes impossibly big. He could just about see the two girls running ahead of him; He could tell from their posture that even they were getting tired from moving so much in the summer heat.

Suddenly, Asano heard something like a gust of wind fly by his right ear. On instinct he dodged to the left; A rubber knife flew past him, inches from were his head had been seconds previously and landed embedded in a tangle of branches.  
The former student council president whipped around quickly, brandishing his knife, only to come face to face with another group;  
Terasaka, the black haired boy with glasses, Takebayashi, a thin pale girl with straggly black hair named Hazama, and another girl with plum coloured hair cut into a bowel cut named Fuwa.

"Dammit! We almost had ya." Terasaka said, tossing his knife into the air and catching it. Takebayashi just adjusted his glasses.

"How did you sneak up on me without me realising?" Asano asked, getting into a defensive position; He couldn't run away now even if he wanted to, that would leave his back wide open.

"Heh, Assassins like us have been taught not to be so loud when we're tracking down an enemy." Terasaka explained, looking quite proud of himself. "Not like you; I could hear the leaves crunchin' under your foot and your clothes rustlin' from miles away!"

"Now that may be a slight exaggeration." Takebayashi said. He still had had that impassive expression that he usually wore.

"Whoa! This is just like a manga! We've come to confront the final boss!" Fuwa said, grinning, clearly enjoying herself. "We're going to bring you down! Believe it!"

"..Is that suppose to be a catchphrase or something?" Terasaka started to say, Asano cut him of by dashing forwards, brandishing his knife.

"Fine, if it's a fight you want I'll happily oblige you! Even if it's someone as pig-headed as you I'll be happy to fight!" Asano said, aiming for Hazama. As he expected, Terasaka jumped in front of her to defend her.  
"What did you say to me!?" He demanded, enraged. Just as Asano had predicted, provoking him had made him loose focus just by a little.

At the last second, Asano changed direction and instead went for Takebayashi. Before anyone could react, the strawberry-blonde struck the black haired boy across the chest of his PE shirt.  
"That's for being so rude that time we kindly let you into A class!" Asano smirked, remembering how Takebayashi had smashed up one of his father's awards in order to return back to E class and made the school look like fools. Looking back it was almost funny how wound up his father was over it, but at the time Asano was also furious.

"Hey! Don't be acting all uppity, your in the E for end class too, aren't you?" Terasaka said, lunging at him with the knife. His skill and speed were a lot better than Asano anticipated, but he still managed to dodge the knife.

"Go Terasaka! Avenge our fallen comrade! Don't let Takebayashi's sacrifice be in vain!" Fuwa cried out. "Just access your power and go super-sayien and win!"

"I'm not dead, you know!" Takabashi said, once again adjusting his glasses.

Asano continued to dodge Terasaka's knife, the taller boy's moves were getting more sloppy each time. He kept a watchful eye on the two female team members, Hazama and Fuwa, who were staying near the fringes of the fight.

"Stay still, dammit!" Terasaka bellowed, Asano grinned at him.

"If you're moving this slow it's really not my fault if you can't hit me!"

The strawberry blonde swung his knife, dodging straight past Terasaka and aiming for Fuwa.  
He was inches from her neck, when she suddenly grabbed a tree branch and tossed herself up onto the tree almost effortlessly.  
Asano almost gasped; This girl had to be an acrobat.  
"Impressed by my awesome moves, I see!" Fuwa said, posing on the tree-branch. "Well this type of ability is normal for a member of E class. We are assassins after all. If you want to see something really impressive you should see how Okano moves!"

"Hey! Your fighting me, dummy!" Terasaka said, wielding his knife.

"Sorry- you were boring me so I forgot." Asano said. He grabbed hold of the tree branch the same way Fuwa had done, and copying her moves, threw himself high into the tree the same way that she had moments previous.

Before she had time to react, Asano slashed her with the knife across the back. All those sports clubs he  
"Huh! No way you copied my moves! Do you have the sharingan or something?" Fuwa cried out. Asano had no idea what she was even talking about, instead he hopped to the next branch, and descended down onto the spot Hazama was standing- she was his next target!  
But the one his knife came into contact with wasn't her, it was Terasaka- without warning, he had jumped in the way, defending her from Asano's rubber blade and instead being hit himself.

"I told ya to leave Hazama alone didn't I?" He said.

"Wow, a real noble sacrifice! Who knew Terasaka had a cool side?"

Hazama looked up at Terasaka, who was standing between her and Asano.

"Does it really count as a sacrifice if all the opponent was going to do was hit me with a rubber knife? It's not like it even hurts." Hazama said evenly, her expression as somber as ever. "In fact, wouldn't our team have a better chance of winning if Terasaka was still in the game and not me, I mean, he is stronger."

"Shut up! Who's side are you on! Stop making me look like an idiot!" Terasaka fumed, Hazama smiled.

"It doesn't matter either way! I've already obliterated your team- " Asano smirked, taking a swing at Hazama and hitting her. She narrowed her eyes.  
"Now I'm definitely going to put a curse on you." She said, folding her arms, looking deadly serious.

Asano turned, looking in the direction he'd last seen Isogai and the others. Well, he'd lost his team now, they were somewhere in this dense forest, hidden under a canopy of tree's.

Oh well, he didn't need them, he was sure he could win this thing himself! Basking in the glory of his latest victory, he headed of deeper into the tree's, this time trying to conceal the sound of his movement a little more (but it was just so hard when every leaf and twig was so loud!).

Suddenly, he heard the sound of voices, Asano crept towards them, until he found himself at the edge of an over-hang with about a twenty-five ft drop to the forest floor below.  
Standing at the bottom was non other than Karma Akabane and one of his team-mates, Okano, the slim girl with short brown hair. In Karma's hand, was non other than the flag it was their mission to retrieve.  
"Ehh, do we really have to wait for the rest of the team before we head back?" Karma asked her. "It sounds like a risky strategy."

"We might get ambushed on the way back, so we need all the man-power we can get!" Okana said, Karma nodded, smiling at her.  
"That's true- "  
Asano smirked to himself- perfect! He just had to take the flag! He'd win the game and finally beat Akabane once and for all!  
The only problem was the drop. To launch a surprise attack he'd have to jump, but even for him, the hight was daunting- if he didn't want to get injured he'd have to use the tree branches below as leverage to break the fall. If class E could do this stuff, then so could he, even without the training! He told himself.  
Taking a deep breath, he launched himself of the top of the overhang.

He felt the air rush past him, and suddenly he was falling, everything around himself was a blur. He had to break the fall! He managed to grab onto one of the tree branches, stopping himself momentarily, but his grip slipped and suddenly he was plummeting towards the ground once again. Shit!  
Asano slammed into another branch, this time it caught him across the stomach. Pain suddenly surged through his body, as he felt the wind being knocked out of him. He slid of the branch, and by some miracle managed to land on his feet. Asano ignored the pain and pulled out his knife, hitting Okana; He'd landed mere inches behind her.

"What the hell?" She exclaimed- he'd come out of nowhere!

"Well," Karma said, unfazed, his eyes widening in amusement. "Looks like that ambush has arrived."  
Gakushu nodded, and pulled himself up to his full height (although his legs still felt shaky beneath him). "Why don't you make this easy on yourself and just hand it over?" He said, Karma laughed.

"Nah, don't really feel like it." Karma said, "Were's the rest of your team?"

"I don't need them." Gakushu replied, taking a step forward. Karma did the same.

This was about to become the fight both of them had been itching to have ever since the finals. Two prodigies in both mind and body squaring it of in a knife fight.  
Then suddenly, from the direction of the school, a green flare shot up into the sky.  
That was Mr Karasuma's signal that the game had been won, and the flag had been retrieved.

Karma, Okana and Asano all looked at the flag in front of them, confused. How could the game be won if the flag was right here?

It turned out another team had won. They'd made make-shift flags out of wooden poles and spare material and spread them throughout the area in order to throw other teams of their trail. Apparently it had been Nagisa Shiota's idea. Asano knew vaguely who he was, but he'd never paid him much heed before dismissing him as just another member of E class. But maybe he wasn't quite as harmless as his appearance suggested.

Asano managed to find the rest of his team just before they reached the edge of the forest.  
"There you are! I was worried you'd gotten lost." Isogai said, walking over.  
"I can handle a nature trail without loosing my way." Asano said, still annoyed over being beaten so easily.

"So you didn't hurt yourself or anything? That's good!" Isogai said. (How could he be so nice all the time?)

"Of course not." Asano replied, curtly. Although, that wasn't the truth. He was sure slamming into that tree was going to leave a bruise, he could feel a dull ache throbbing under his PE shirt already. But he'd be dammed if he was going to make a fool of himself by admitting he got himself injured by disobeying what Mr Karasuma told him.  
They still had an hour of lessons left even after PE. Asano, like the rest of the class, was exhausted, after running around the mountain in the sweltering heat, an hour of Maths was the last thing anyone needed.

"Koro-Sensei, can't you let us go home early?" Rio Nakamura whined, the rest of the class nodded in agreement. The red X appeared on Koro-Sensei's face.

"No can do, boys and girls! As your teacher it'd be irresponsible to waste the time I have been given to enrich your minds!" He said, his enthusiasm contrasting with how tired the class is. "Besides, exercise releases endorphins in the brain that help with learning and focus! So you should be in perfect condition to be doing your lessons now!"

The class groaned, but complied. Even though he seemed like a total goof, Koro-Sensei could be surprisingly firm with his students, without being strict, Asano noted.

It was a relief when the lesson finally ended, although the thought of trekking down the mountain in this heat was less than appealing.  
Asano was almost at the door, when Koro-Sensei called out.

"Oh, Asano, will you stay behind in the staff-room? We need to have a little talk!" The Teacher said. Asano turned to him and frowned.

"About what, sir?"

"Don't worry, your not in trouble." Koro-Sensei said, "I'll be right there, I just need to pick up something from Nepal!"

"Nepal!?" Asano cried, before he got a chance to question him further, Koro-Sensei had blasted away out the window, and was already out of sight. Who the hell just makes someone wait why they go all the way to Nepal? Perhaps I should stop expecting anything about this teacher to be normal.  
Irritated, he walked out of the classroom towards the staff-room.

It was just as shabby as the classroom. Compared to the fancy Staff room with plush chairs and expensive coffee desks, this tiny box room with only one table and a few crowded files was basically a broom closet.

But the thing that caught his attention when he walked in, was the big rectangle-shaped metal box with a screen on it sat in the corner.  
Curiously, he walked over, and as he did the screen flickered to life. It displayed an image of a pretty girl with bright blue eyes and long purple hair wearing the Kunokigawa uniform. Asano stepped back- he hadn't meant to switch it on!  
The image looked at him.  
"Hi there, my name's Autonomously Thinking Fixed Artillery but most people just call me Ritsu. It's nice to meet you!" The computer said. Asano was surprised by just how real she looked and sounded- her movement seemed so fluid and realistic. What was this? Why did the Octopus keep a virtual school-girl in the staff room?

Weird.  
"What is this, some sort of dating sim?" Asano mused. Video games were admittedly something he didn't really know much about (as if he had time to waste playing them!) but he'd heard from Ren that there were games were you pretend-dated a virtual girl.

It was creepy that Koro-Sensei apparently owned one.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand what your referring to." Ritsu said, her confused expression looking all too real.

Before Asano had a chance to contemplate whether he should enter a conversation with what he could only assume was a video game, Koro-Sensei burst into the room with such speed Asano was surprised he hadn't blown the doors of.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long!" Koro-Sensei said, "Ah, I see you've met Ritsu. She wasn't in class today because she had to undergo some maintenance."

"Don't worry, Sensei, I'll be back in lessons as usual tomorrow!" Ritsu said. Asano could only stare. Could she be some sort of AI?  
"Oh, by the way, this is Gakushu Asano. He's just moved to our class." Koro-Sensei exclaimed.

"Really? Well I look forward to working with you on the Assassination, Asano-san." Ritsu smiled. "I'm a student built specifically for assassinating Koro-Sensei."

"..You don't really look much like a high-tech weapon of assassination." Asano said. He found it so strange addressing a computer.

"Oh, but I am!" Ritsu said, her smile widening. Suddenly, from out of her metal box several machine guns sprang out. Koro-Sensei let out a (manly) squeak and jumped away.

"As impressive as those are, Ritsu, why don't we leave the shooting till later!" The teacher cried out.  
Asano was fascinated.

"A real life AI that doubles as a high-tech weapon- the possibilities of what you could do with a machine like that were endless!" He said, enthused.

"Let's leave the plans of world domination for later, Asano." Koro-Sensei said, sounding amused. "How are you adjusting to E class?"

"Fine." Asano answered quickly, suddenly becoming defensive.  
He didn't need some yellow octopus pretending to be all understanding, he was far too old for reassurances!  
"Hmm, really- well this doesn't seem so fine." Koro-Sensei said, one of his yellow tentacles reaching over and lifting up his students shirt a little to reveal a dark bruise already forming from were Asano had hit the tree in PE.

"That's just- "

"Getting bumps and bruises are all a part of growing up. What worries me is that you didn't tell anyone- you could of broken a rib." Koro-Sensei said, with a caring tone Asano wasn't used to. "You see, you shouldn't be ashamed of your mistakes, they're just proof your growing as a person. And holding onto your pride so desperately will only lead to yourself getting hurt."  
"Yes, sir." Asano said, scowling. Koro-Sensei had a point, but the teen refused to acknowledge it. Of course mistakes were something to be ashamed of! That was something he'd been trained to believe for his entire life.

"Oh, and I got you this for the bruises- from Nepal!" Koro-Sensei said, pulling out a bottle of ointment. "The monks up there use it! They're nice guys; kind of quiet, though. It works really well, of course, I don't need to use it, being invincible and everything."

The green bands once again coloured his face. Hesitantly, Asano took the bottle.

"Thank you for your concern." He said, hiding his feelings behind a mask of formality.  
"Well, looking after the well being of my students is my duty as your teacher, after all." The Octopus said, that permanent smile still on his face. "Well, you better be on your way before it gets too late."

"Yes sir."  
As Asano walked down the mountain back to civilization, all sorts of thoughts swirled around his head. Getting ointment for bruises from monks in Nepal from a super-powered Octopus- what had his life come to! And now he had to go to school in a rundown shack and train to be some sort of killer? This whole thing was ridicules! Crazy!  
Asano didn't even notice that he was smiling the entire way down.


	4. More classes

"So, how did you enjoy your first day in E-class, Asano-kun?" The Chairman asked, taking a sip of coffee and peering at his son over the top of his laptop screen.

"It was.. Different." Asano replied stiffly, meeting his father's gaze. It was breakfast, the start of another day, and the first time Asano had seen his father since he'd joined E-class yesterday. Breakfast was the only meal the two of them shared, but it always felt more like a review of the day ahead rather than a family meal.

"Your old classmates were quite shocked to hear of your departure." The Chairman said, going back to typing on his computer screen. A condescending grin grew on his face."Although, I imagine not as shocked as you were when you met your new teacher."

Asano flinched at the mention of his old classmates; He'd received countless email's last night demanding to know if it was really true- The messages ranged from people showing support and demanding he move back to A class and that this grave injustice be undone, to hate-mail informing him that he was not to speak to the sender, and E-class trash wasn't welcome anywhere near them. Asano read all of them but didn't reply to any. He'd become both a social pariah and a martyr overnight. Ren had called him twelve times last night, but Asano hadn't picked up once; It wasn't that he was running away or anything! He just thought it was best to put some distance between his old friends, and Ren was one person he really didn't want scorn or pity from.

"I'm sure they were shocked you threw one of the best pupils into E-class for no good reason. Further proof of you inability to manage the school." Asano quipped, his violet eyes burning with fury. His father didn't take his eyes of the computer screen.

" 'One of the best', not The best." The Chairman said, with a disappointed sigh. "Have you already become so comfortable with mediocrity?"

Asano glared down at his food, unable to think of a retort, so he instead settled on chewing his toast which suddenly tasted like cardboard in his mouth.  
"Thank you for the food." He muttered, taking his dishes to the sink, ignoring the concerned looks that Mikado, one of the maids shot him, he walked through the parlor to the door.

"You best hurry, Asano. It's quite some distance climbing up the mountain, especially in this weather." The Chairman called from the kitchen. Asano clenched his fists. He didn't exactly have a stellar relationship with his father at the best of times, but lately he'd become unbearable. With more force than necessary Asano picked up his school bag, inside, amongst the books, Asano saw the green rubber knife, the black pellet gun filled with anti-sensei BB's, and the ointment Koro-Sensei had gave him (which really had worked well). For some reason it made him smile, if only for an instant.  
Even if today was awful, at least it wouldn't be boring.  
____

The school day started out normally that day, or at least, normal for E-class. Koro-Sensei blasted into the room through the window with a cheery.

"Morning boys and girls!"

He took registration, and handed everyone back their question sheets from the day before. "You've all really improved in your physics! Just remember your formulas!" He checked the time on the clock. "Ah, it's about time for Bitch-Sensei's lesson; Enjoy learning languages while I zip over to newyork to catch the game... Go giants! See you kids in an hour."  
And with that, Koro-Sensei flew of just as quickly as he had came.

"No fair; He gets to go to new york while we're stuck in Bitch-Sensei's lesson." Maehara complained, as a blonde woman on stiletto heels walked in.

"Morning class," She said, flipping a lock of her long blonde hair over her shoulder, her blue eyes scanning the room.  
"Morning Bitch-Sensei!" The Class chorused back. Bitch-Sensei!?  
What kind of name was that? Asano thought. He recognised the the teacher from the all-school assemblies; With her super-model looks and revealing outfits she wasn't easy to forget, (especially with the amount of cleavage she showed.) Asano always thought she looked more like a stripper than a teacher and assumed she was just some dumb bimbo. But judging by how much E class's scores had improved in languages, Bitch-Sensei must be a better teacher than she looks.

"I told you brats to stop calling me that! Irina-Sensei will do." Bitch-Sensei growled, her face morphing into a scowl.

"But 'bitch-Sensei' is just too catchy!" Rio Nakamura said with a smile.

"And it suits you!" Karma added cheekily.

"What was that?" Bitch-Sensei fumed, pouting like a kid throwing a tantrum. then she rolled her eyes. "Whatever, I can't be bothered arguing about this with you and the start of ever lesson."  
The class laughed, Asano was shocked; He'd never seen a class show so much disrespect towards a teacher, but the strange thing was, it didn't seem malicious, their taunting was almost friendly.

"Okay, today we'll be doing French speaking and conversation. I know the syllabus is mostly grammar and writing-based, but in the real world pronunciation is far more important." Bitch-Sensei said, Asano noted that even though she didn't look Japanese she spoke the language as fluently as if she was born here. "Now for a warm-up exercise. Repeat after me; voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?"

"voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir" The class repeated. Asano joined in, even though he thought that phrase was wildly inappropriate to be taught in the classroom- just what did this teacher think they would be getting up to? Bitch-Sensei shock her head.

"No, no- Voulez-vous, not Vourez-vous. L and R, people!" She chided, Her blue eyes scanned the room and rested on Asano.

"You- you pronounced it right!" She said, then frowned. "Wait... Your not normally in this class, are you?"

"You just noticed?" The Class cried, Asano shook his head and kept his expression impassive.

"I moved here from the main building yesterday."

"Wait- I know you, your the Chairman's kid, right? Asano." Bitch-Sensei said, placing a hand on her hip. "So you can speak French?"

"Fluently. Among other languages." Asano said, proudly. He'd always been good at learning foreign languages- He'd traveled around a lot, and met people from all over the world, before he went to a knew country, he always dedicated his time to learning the language, communication was an important device when building up a global network of allies. He heard someone mutter 'show of'.

"It's so nice to meet someone else who shares my passion for communication?" Irina squealed, smiling happily. She looked even more stunning when she smiled, Asano couldn't help but think. "Come up here, let me give you a reward!"

Asano looked at her, confused- A reward? What did she mean? Was she the type of teacher who gave out stickers and lollipops as if the class were first-grader?.

"Don't be shy~" She said, with a wink that was unmistakably flirtatious. Something about this seemed highly inappropriate. Slowly, Asano stood up from his desk and walked to the front of the room. The class was unusually quiet, they watched Asano with knowing eyes. Karma was smirking. That was never a good sign. Was this some sort of joke?

He reached the front of the classroom, still half expecting Irina to pull a sticker out of her bag or something, but instead she leaned closer to him and put her hands on Asano's shoulders. Before he even had a chance to ask her what she was doing, Irina leaned forward, and kissed him.

Asano froze in shock as Bitch-Sensei deepened the kiss, he didn't know what she was doing with her tongue but it made it impossible for him to process what was happening. He felt the heat rush to his face- how the hell could a kiss be so powerful?  
By the time she pulled away, Asano was weak in the knee's, his face flushed he leaned on the desk for support; Did that really just happen!?

"W- What the hell are you doing?" He cried, Irina laughed.

"Your too uptight, you need to loosen your shoulders a little." She said, pulling out lipstick from her bag, and re-applying it. Asano stared at her in disbelief- What kind of crazy teacher kissed her fourteen year old student? He looked at the class, but rather than shocked, most of them looked amused.

"Whoa, no way! So not even Asano is immune to Bitch-Sensei's charm!" Yada, the girl with her brown hair pulled up into a pony-tail said, sounding impressed.

'I wouldn't call that charm so much as assault!" Asano thought,his shock morphing into humiliation then anger. He went back to his seat quickly, wanting to put as much distance between himself and the teacher as possible. He couldn't believe he'd react like that to a kiss! It wasn't even like it was his first, so why was he acting like some shy highschool girl getting her first kiss, it was embarrassing!

"Hey- second place." Karma whispered to him from behind.

"What!?" Gakushu hissed, turning to glare at him, not caring that his voice was probably too loud to be classroom appropriate. The red head's grin widened.

"Just wanted to let you know you have some lipstick left on your mouth, keep it on if you want, but pink isn't really your colour, y'know." Karma said in a sing-song voice, Asano felt his face redden again, he quickly turned back around, he could hear Karma snickering as he wiped his mouth vigouresly with the back of his hand. Irina was already back teaching the lesson like nothing had happened. Why was E class so insane in every possible way?

That lunchtime, Asano sat outside alone, eating from a bento box. He wasn't used to being alone, because he was almost always surrounded by people back at the main school, and after school he had student council, and he also was a stand-in at sports clubs whenever they needed him, and that wasn't even counting all the things he did away from school.

"Hey, mind if I sit here?" It was Nagisa Shiota, the short boy who's blue hair was tied into pigtails. Asano had to admit, that if it wasn't for the uniform, he would of mistaken him for female, Nagisa was probably prettier than half the girls in school.

"If you want, I wont stop you." Asano said, with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. Nagisa looked a little unsure of himself, but sat down anyway on the grass verge opposite Asano.

"It takes some getting used to, this class, I mean." Nagisa said picking up some rice in his chopsticks. "Especially Bitch-Sensei."

"Is this suppose to be a pep talk?" Asano asked coldly. Nagisa smiled, and shrugged.

"I guess it is." He said. "But if it makes you feel better, I freaked out even more the first time Bitch-Sensei kissed me."

"You mean she does that a lot!?"

"All the time!" Nagisa laughed, clearly remembering something. "She used to punish people for getting the wrong answer by kissing them, and reward them for getting the right answer by kissing them eveytime. Mr Karasuma had to get her to stop."

"Is she some kind of predator who has a thing for teenage boys?" Asano asked, frowning. Ren should of been sent to this class, he'd definitely enjoy it more than Asano, the language lessons, at least.

"She kissed the girl's too." Nagisa said, offhandedly. Asano nearly spat out his dinner. He couldn't help but picture it.

"How did a woman like that get her teacher's license?" He demanded,  
"She's not actually a teacher, she's an assassin." Nagisa explained. "She specialises in the honey-pot. Seducing her targets then killing them, she can be kind of crazy but she's good at what she does."

Ah, that explains it.

"My teachers are a government agent, a femme-fatal, and a tentacle monster that wants to destroy the earth, perfect." Asano muttered, shoving another prawn into his mouth.

"Do you really think E-class is that bad. I mean, sometimes.." Nagisa swallowed and looked to the side awkwardly. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you give of the impression you think you're too good for us. Do you think that?"

Asano paused, and looked at Nagisa, then looked away. Did he think he was better than E class? He certainly used to. He used to look down on them as second-class citizens, he almost used to pity them. But now, he'd seen what they can do, and he'd been beaten by them in sport and in academics.

"No. I don't think I'm better than E-class. I respect your tenacity." Asano admitted. "I just think I'm too different from E-class."  
Asano didn't know what it was, but something about Nagisa made him open up far more than he would normally allow himself. Maybe it was because he seemed so harmless, like he wasn't any sort of threat. No hidden agenda.

"You know, we all didn't get along with each other as well as we do now; When Bitch-Sensei first arrived she pissed everyone off by treating us like dirt, and Itona was involved in an assassination attempt that involved blowing up the pool we were in and almost drowning us all. It's not like it was easy to get to this point." Nagisa said, a fond smile on his face as he looked back at the memories. "But eventually, we became like a family. And it was because we're all different that we were able to overcome so much. I can see why your not happy being sent here, to be honest, non of us were. But we made the best of a bad situation, and I wouldn't change it for the world."  
Suddenly Nagisa blushed a little. "Sorry- that turned into kind of a long-winded speech didn't it."

Before Asano had a chance to answer Nagisa, a green-haired girl bounded over to them from inside.  
"Hey- there you are, Nagisa!" She chirped with a smile. She was tiny, even smaller than Shiota. "C'mon class is about to start- you know what Mr Karasuma's like when we're late."  
The two boys glanced at each other briefly before they both followed Kayano inside to the school building. Asano mulled over what Nagisa had said- It seemed like there was a lot about E-class Asano still didn't know. But Shiota did make a point about making the best of a bad situation though- if nothing else, Asano wanted to use this opportunity to become the best assassin and kill Koro-Sensei.


	5. Fitting in.

Without all his extra-circular activities in the main school to attend, Asano found himself with more free-time than he could ever remember having. Of course, he still had advanced cram school, karate lessons, Judo lessons, volunteer work and meetings with various associates from out of school, as well as his place on the junior city council, but other than that, nothing.

Some days he had up to three hours free time, and he spent all of it training for assassination. Knife-work, shooting, all the other things Karasuma-Sensei had taught him. He'd made make-shift targets and practiced until it was dark.

"Your dedication is admirable, but you're wasting too much time honing a mostly obsolete skill. You wont need to shoot things in the real world, at least, you should hope not." His father said to him one evening from the backdoor when he was practicing the basics of knife combat with the green rubber knife in the garden.

"There wont be a world if we don't assassinate Koro-Sensei." Asano replied, refusing to let his father distract him. 1! 2! 3!. He had to repeat these movements until they were completely natural to him.

"You know, you wont get far with sparring practice if you don't have a partner, Asano." The Chairman said, stepping out of the door and into the garden. Asano watched him approach out of the corner of his eye. "Because in the real world, things change in an instant and you need to be able to react to that."

"Yes sir." Asano said, with the usual formality he used when speaking to his father.

"Your strength and speed have improved." His father said. "But for your assassination, intelligence and strategy will be far more important."

"If you're such an expert on assassination, sir, why don't you kill Koro-Sensei for us? You could use the ten billion yen to make another ten Kunukigawa's." The strawberry blonde said, with a smug grin. Because even his father was bested by Koro-Sensei in both teaching and ability. The Chairman didn't answer.

"Don't tell me you already tried and failed to assassinate Koro-Sensei?" He asked, twirling his grin rubber knife in his hands. He was playing with fire right now, taunting his the father, but he couldn't stop. The Chairman's lack of response told him everything. He smile widened.

"Don't feel bad, even you, Mr Perfect ,can't compare to a Mach 20 super-being."

Suddenly, Chairman placed a hand on Asano's shoulder, and before he could react, Gakuho had knocked his knife out of his hand, and twisted his arms behind his back.

"I don't want to hear a loser who landed himself in E class being trying to act superior about anything." The Chairman hissed.

"I'm sorry I hurt your feeling, sir." Gakushu said venomously, his voice strained as he to struggle free himself from the bruising grip to no avail. How could a middle aged man be so insanely strong? It reminded Asano how far of he was from his goal. The Chairman let him go, and was completely unfazed when his son whipped around and tried to punch him. He moved out the way with such ease that it was almost as if Gakushu was moving in slow motion.

"You have a long way to go, Asano-kun." The Chairman said, as he turned to walk back inside the house.  
Asano inspected the five circular red marks on his forearm.

Other than a few minutes at breakfast, Gakushu hardly saw his father any more, since he was no longer at the main school, the Chairman couldn't call him up to his office on a whim. Gakuho had made up for it by being extra unbearable whenever they did cross paths. Their relationship had always been strained, but at least in the past they kept up a guise of formality, but these days they were just out-right insulting each other. The Chairman had even called him by his given name the other morning, probably just to freak him out. It had worked.  
There was still a few hours of daylight left, he had to stay focused. He couldn't let anything distract him, not even his father, he had to catch up to E Class, after all.

Asano arrived in class moments before Koro-Sensei flew in through the window, which was like the equivalent of the bell ringing for E-class.

"Good morning boys and girls!" Koro-Sensei called out, waving his tentacles around he pulled out the register. "Time to take roll-call!"  
Asano had been here a week now, but he still wasn't really used to this class, every time he thought he'd settled in, something new and absurd happened.  
"Isogai Yuuma."

"Here!"

" Kaede Kayano."

"Here!"

"No sweets in class, young lady- " Koro-Sensei chided, taking a half finished family-sized bar of chocolate of her. (How could she eat so much and remain so petite?).

"But Sensei! That's the new pudding flavoured one!"

"Don't worry, you'll get it back at the end."

"But you always say that, and you always eat it!" Kayano pouted. Koro-Sensei looked guilty- of course, his actual face didn't change much, but Asano was getting more familiar with the subtle changes in his expression.

"That- That must be Mr Karasuma! I wouldn't eat my students food!" The octopus cried. The class collectively rolled their eyes. As if!

"Anyway, boys and girls," The teacher said, regaining composure. "Since we're ahead of the syllabus, I thought we'd do something fun today! For a warm up exercise, I want you to write a poem that ends with 'Koro-Sensei is the best!'"  
The class groaned. Asano was sure that this was the stupidest assignment he'd ever been given.

"Your so egotistical, sir!" Rio Nakamura complained. The teacher just snickered.

That day at lunch, Asano went to go sit outside like he'd been doing since he'd gotten here.

"Asano-san, you should sit and eat with us today." Isogai called out to him, still with that easy-going smile on his face. He asked this almost every day, because he was impossibly nice. But Asano usually refused him- he didn't want to be thought of as a charity case. However, today they hadn't been given any homework yet, so he didn't really have an excuse.

"If you insist." He said, pulling up a chair to the desk Isogai was sat around with Maehara. There was a moment of awkward silence before Maehara started to speak, deciding on the topic he was most familiar with; Girls.

"So, Asano- which girl in 3-E do you like?" Maehara asked. Asano looked at him, taken-aback. That came out of nowhere.

"I hardly think I've been here long enough for that." Was his reply.

"Oh, wait- do you have a girl back in 3-A?" Maehara asked, clearly enjoying himself.

"No. I don't have time for things like that." Asano said. He'd been confessed to more times than he could care to remember, but he'd never been particularly interested in any of the girls (or occasionally boys) who came professing their love.

"You always have to make time to enjoy yourself. Come on, if you could pick any girl in 3-E who would it be?" The playboy asked. "There's always class idol Kanzaki- she's beautiful and refined. Kurahashi's really sweet, and pretty. And Kayano's cute, there's Hayami, she's an ice-cold beauty- oh, and there's Yada, she's got- "  
Maehara's speech on all the different girls in E-class was cut short when Okano, the short-haired gymnast girl hit him up the backside of the head with her empty lunch box.

"What was that for!"

"Don't list girls name's like their items to be bought, jackass!" She growled.

"Don't worry. I didn't miss you out, your name was next so you don't have to be jealous- ow!" Maehara cried, as he was hit again. Okano was blushing now.

"That's not what this was about!"  
Asano turned back to his lunch, smiling slightly. This classroom was crazy, nothing like 3-A were the only thing most people focused on was studying. It was only natural genius' like the five virtuosos that could ever slack of and have fun. Asano, of course, didn't waste his time by joining them.

"Whoa, Mr antisocial is actually gracing us with his presence!" That was Terasaka. He was leaning on the back of Asano's chair, much to his annoyance.

"Is there something you wanted?" Asano asked with icy formality.

"Nah, just spending time with a dear classmate." Terasaka said in his usual brutish manner. Asano opted to just ignore him, which wasn't easy when the guy was right behind him.

"You were pretty popular back at the main school. How'd you manage that when your about as friendly as a rock?" Terasaka asked. Asano clicked his tongue, but didn't answer, why should he have to answer such a stupid question? (Un)luckily, Karma answered it for him.

"Isn't it obvious? Asano was popular in the main school because he put up a facade of charismatic benevolence, but he's already showed us his 'dark side', so he can't pull that card with us. Plus, Asano, didn't you basically rule over A class? Maybe your scared of being friends with people you have no authority over." Karma said, leaning back in his chair and not looking up from his phone. Asano felt his cheeks redden slightly- Akabane had hit the nail on the head and it pissed him off more than anything. There were murmurs of agreement throughout the class.

"I'm not scared of anything, Akabane, stop spouting nonsense." Asano replied, sounding as condescending as he could. Karma just glanced at him from behind his phone screen and smirked.

"Asano-kun is so cool! The headmaster needs to let him back into A-class!" Karma said suddenly, his grin still in place. What? Asano and a few others turned around to look at him, confused. Karma continued "Without Asano-kun the only hot gut left in 3-A is Ren! We need him back!"

"Excuse me?" Asano looked at the red head, confused. What was he saying? He was trying to mess with him, no doubt.

"Woow, there's a lot of interesting things written on this facebook page; 'Bring Asano back to A class.'" Karma snickered. Asano got to his feet immediately, storming over to look at the screen of Karma's smart-phone.

To his horror, the Facebook page did exist. The more people made a fuss about him moving classes, the worse it felt. His eyes scanned the screen, reading some of the comments.  
'Asano should be back in A class'

'If Asano didn't deserve to be in E class he wouldn't be there, this page is stupid!'

'Asano failed as our leader, he is why we kept loosing to E class! He's trash like the rest of them!'

'E Class is for trash, ergo, the guy is trash'

'E class are already too strong, why did we have to loose our highest scoring member? :('

'Asano is the coolest! ;_;'

'I wish I could of saw the asshole's face when his Dad kicked him out lol'

The blonde turned away from the phone, cringing internally at the comments. He scowled.

"That's the most pointless thing I've ever seen. Do they really expect a facebook page to change anything?" Asano said, rolling his eyes. "What a waste of time."

"It's nice that they care so much, right?" Isogai said, with a genuine smile. Damn Ikemen.

"It'd be better if they spent their energy doing something more productive." The blonde said, there was a sense of finality in his tone that said the topic was closed. He sat back down, telling himself non of the comments bothered him; He'd read all those things before in the many emails he'd received over the past week. As much as he resented it, he knew his former classmates had every right to call him trash; No matter the reason, he had ended up in E class, after all.

"Good afternoon, class! Florida sure is stormy this time of year, still, Disney land is as fun as ever!" Koro-Sensei said, as he slithered into the classroom. He had a ridicules Mickey Mouse teddy bear clutched in his tentacles.

"You went all the way to America and you didn't even bring us back any souvenirs? Your stingy, Sensei." Karma complained, a teasing grin on his face. Most of the class nodded in agreement.

"Hey! You kids have no idea how expensive Disney World is, and it's still another week till payday so I'm reaching the end of my salary!" Koro-Sensei fumed, waving his tentacles around in anger. The class laughed. Asano had no idea why a super-being like Koro-Sensei had to live on a teacher's salary, with his powers he could easily be rich if he wanted, heck, why did he even need money to buy things? The octopus made no sense to Asano, why did he waste his time teaching them if he wanted to destroy the world anyway? It made no damn sense.  
After PE and afternoon lessons, the class was dismissed as usual. The trek down the mountain was treacherous as ever, with snakes, and insects, but class 3-E was so used to it now it was basically a leisurely stroll.

Asano left the convenience store, plastic bag full of various snacks in hand, he looked up at the sky- It was already a burnt red colour, it was later than he thought. He turned to head home, when suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, second place."  
He whipped around, coming face to face with Karma Akabane. How the hell did he always manage to creep up behind him without him noticing? Damn assassin training. Akabane was sneaky enough without it.

"What are you doing here?" Asano asked, now he had to deal with him out of school as well?

"Shopping." Karma said, nodding towards the supermarket a few shops down. In his hands were bags full of a weeks worth of groceries.

"I never pegged you for the type to do chores like grocery shopping." Asano said, honesty. Imagining Karma doing anything domestic was kind of odd, actually.

"Hmm, really? Well you don't seem like the type to fill up on snacks." The red-head said.

Asano didn't have a response to that, so he just huffed under his breath and continued walking. The two of them were walking side by side now. It was awkward but both of them were too proud to slow down or change direction or something.

"So, do you live nearby here?" Karma asked, breaking the awkward silence. Even when his question was entirely normal, there was still something somehow devious about it.

"I don't feel comfortable revealing that information to the likes of you." Asano said. In actuality his house was nearby though.

"Eh? Rude as ever, I see." Karma said, rolling his mercury eyes. He gave Asano an amused grin. "What? are you afraid of me knowing were you live?"

"Giving your status as a delinquent I just don't think revealing the location of my property is advisable." The Strawberry blonde said, smirking slightly. Karma shot him a glare at the word 'delinquent'.

"Looking down on people seems to be your specialty, you know that?" The Red Head said. Asano was about to retort when suddenly he saw two familiar figures in Kunugigawa uniforms the other end of the street. They were facing the other way looking in a shop window, but Asano recognised them non the less.  
Seo Tomoya and Araki Teppei

Without caring what Karma thought of him for it, he quickly turned into a side-alley, it wasn't as if he were nervous of seeing then or anything, he told himself, avoiding an awkward confrontation with his former followers was just in his best interest.

"You know this is a dead end, right, are you lost or something?" Came Karma's voice from behind him.

"Why did you follow me?" Asano hissed angrily.

"Don't tell me you came down here to hide from those former class-mates of yours- " Karma said, ignoring the question. Amusement danced in his eyes, he looked like he was about to start laughing.

"Of course not." Asano said, with such conviction it was almost believable. Karma snickered.

"Oh, so if your not hiding from them, you wont mind if I call them over, right? It'll be a nice reunion." Karma said, his eyes filled with sadistic glee. He turned around the side-alley, shouting "Hey- "  
Asano cut him of, clamping his hand over Karma's mouth quickly, and practically dragging him back into the alley. He could feel Karma laughing against the palm of his hand.

"Stop that this instant, Akabane!"  
The red-head pried Asano's fingers of his mouth, holding them away from his face.

"Just admit that your scared." Karma told him.

"Well I'm not." The former student council president told him, pulling his hands angrily out of Karma's grip.

"Are you trying to convince me, or yourself of that?" The red-head asked, with that annoying knowing smile. Before Asano could reply, two people suddenly rounded the corner.  
Araki and Seo, both with identical sneers on their face.  
He felt his heart drop in his chest, although he fixed his expression to neutral. Not giving anything away.

"I thought I heard something here- You sure adapted to life on the lowest rung fast." Seo said with a grin, clearly enjoying looking down on his former leader. It didn't matter than Seo was in fifteenth place and Asano was in second, Asano was jn the E class. "So how are things in the E class?"

"Was there something you wanted?" Asano asked, stepping away from Karma. He kept his eyes fixed on the two boys in front of him.

"Just making sure you know your place is all, I mean, it would be embarrassing if you thought you could still be friends with us." Seo said with a wide grin, Araki nodded in agreement.

"That's understandable." Asano said, his voice sounding calm and even. He knew Seo would be like this; He boosted his own self esteem by looking down on others, even fellow A-class members, out of the rest of the main five, he probably held the most contempt for E class, and Araki was in close second. What he was saying was true though, so Asano had no right or reason to retaliate.

"Your pathetic you know? kicked to the kerb of society by your own father. That's got to sting." Seo said, turning the taunting up a notch, obviously displeased by Asano's lack of reaction.  
"Even your Dad think's your worthless" Araki added. Asano looked to the side for a brief moment, but it was reaction enough for Seo to notice. He took a step forward, but Asano stood his ground.

"What, you don't like what I'm saying?" He said, with mock-concern. He poked Asano on the forehead. "Well you know, your not the boss of me any more, Asano-kun, so you can't make me shut up."

The two of then laughed like it was the funniest joke in the world. Asano just stared ahead, they would get bored soon, he had to at least accept this in good-grace.  
He heard movement behind him, and suddenly remembered Akabane was there. He had been so quiet that Asano had actually forgotten for about him moment, and Araki and Seo seemed perfectly happy just ignoring his existence.  
Asano realised in horror that he was probably going to join in.  
'Heh, even your old cronies in A class have turned against you, how pitiful'

Or maybe he'd just reveal to them how Asano had been trying to hide from them. He didn't think he could take the humiliation. He hoped Karma would just decide this has nothing to do with him and walk away. But instead, Karma took a step forward, facing Araki and Seo.

"Hmm, should you two really be talking to someone from the elite class in that way?" Karma asked them, a teasing smile on his mouth.  
The two A-class students scowled at him.

"What the hell are you talking about, Akabane? Did you not notice Asano's in the E class?" Seo grunted.

"Exactly, the Elite class." Karma said, with a smug grin. "Our class has the highest overall scores and the most people in the top fifty. So if anyone's the Elite class, it's us."

"That's- those scores were just a fluke!" Seo yelled.

"Yeah, your still just outcasts." Araki shouted, both of them clearly pissed off that their supremacy was being questioned.

Karma shrugged lazily. "Whatever, I wouldn't expect a couple of idiots who didn't even score in the top ten to understand."

Asano could practically see the steam coming out of their ears. Araki and Seo were both red-faced and enraged.

"C- Class E scum!" Seo spluttered furiously before charging at Akabane, his anger clearly clouding his judgement. Out of all the five virtuosos he had always been the most violent, Asano had heard rumours that he'd beaten up a member of E class once.

Karma easily caught his fist.

"This is your only warning, if you try to fight me your going to regret it. I'd recommend running away now~" the red-head said. Seo's beady black eyes met Karma's wild mercury coloured ones. He faltered and retracted his fist.

"You'll regret this!" He yelled as he ran away, quickly followed by Araki. Karma laughed.

"Scardey-cats trying to act tough, how irritating." The red head said, Asano turned to him, surprised. "Oh come on, I know you have no sense of humor but even you have to admit that was funny. They looked ready to piss themselves." Karma said, picking his grocery bag up of the floor were he'd left it.

"It's getting late." Asano said, not sure what else to say. He still couldn't get over that Karma had actually defended him. He wasn't even sure why, they didn't even pretend to like each other.

"So, are you going to tell me what that was all about?" Karma asked, narrowing his eyes suddenly.

"There's nothing to say." Asano replied, starting to walk out of the alley, Karma walked with him. If that boy was expecting a 'thank you' he wasn't getting one. As satisfying as it was seeing Seo and Araki turn tail and run, he hadn't asked for any help.

"You don't suit being a doormat, you know. Why did you let them walk all over you?" Karma asked. "You know you could of easily made them shut up if you just stood up for yourself. Being complacent isn't like you."

"I had no reason to refute what they were saying, all of it was true. I did fail and end up in E class so there's no point trying to deny it." Asano explained with a heavy sigh.

"So because your in E class your worth less than them?" Karma said, shooting the blonde boy a side-along glance. He seemed somehow annoyed.

"For the time being until I can reclaim a place in A class." Asano said. "I don't expect you to understand."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard- Status doesn't determine how much a person's worth. Your perception is seriously twisted." Karma said, Asano scowled at him.

"If anyone's twisted here it's you, Akabane."

Karma chuckled, he didn't seem annoyed anymore. "Whatever you say, catch you later, second place!"He said, turning left onto another road.

Asano didn't spare him a second glance, and just kept paused for a moment, imagining what it would be like to be friends with E-class. It wouldn't be like the main building were everyone would listen to and follow everything he said, and he wouldn't be expected to tutor them and act as their leader. He would have no special authority in E-class, and they already knew he wasn't the kind benevolent person he often made himself out to be to others in order to gain their trust. Maybe that was why he distanced himself from them. He didn't know how he would handle a friendship were both parties were equal. But maybe it wasn't impossible.


	6. Revenge.

Asano walked briskly through the streets. It was the last week of November, and the weather had changed suddenly from an unnatural autumn heat-wave to bitterly cold.  
He hadn't slept all night. He'd been planning and working on the details for his assassination attempt until morning. He was sure he had perfected it, but with Koro-Sensei you just couldn't tell.

"Hey. You're Asano, right? Gakushu Asano?" A tall black-haired man said. He was stood leant on the wall with two other guys; One with obviously dyed orange hair, the other with a face-tattoo. The three of them looked around twenty, and judging by their tattoos and belt-chains they were delinquents of some kind.  
"

Yes, that's my name." Asano said, raising an eyebrow He didn't know how they'd gotten his name and he didn't care. The strawberry blonde went to walk past them, but the first guy, the one with black hair and a dark look in his pitch black eyes, stepped forward. He put a gloved hand on Asano's shoulder.

"Your the Chairman's kid, right? My name is Kira Yoshinaka- your Dad ever mention me?" The black-haired man said. Asano looked at him, surprised; Why would his father have dealings with thugs like these?

"I can't say he has." The blonde replied, he went to side-step Yoshinaka, but the man moved back in front of him. His two cronies, Ginger and Face-Tattoo, moved closer towards Asano, cornering him.  
"

That's just like the Chairman- Ruins my life and then forgets all about me." Yoshinaka said, laughing bitterly. Asano glared at him.

"I don't much care about whatever grudge you have against the Chairman, if you have a problem take it up with him, I'm going to be late for school." The former student council president said, his voice was icy cold and authoritative. He refused to let these thugs intimidate him. Yoshinaka grabbed Asano by the chin, forcing his face up.

"You have the same goddamn eyes as your father. Looking down on me like I'm some piece of dirt." Yoshinaka hissed. Gakushu grabbed the guy's wrist. Now he was pissed off; He had tried to be civil. Before the black-haired man had a chance to do anything, Asano pulled him over, flipping him onto his back using a judo move; Yoshinaka was heavier than him, but he used his own weight against him.

Face-tattoo and Ginger immediately sprung into action, but Asano countered them just as quickly, landing a kick in Ginger's stomach, sending him careening into Face-tattoo. The two of them fell back onto the pavement.

Asano adjusted his uniform, a scowl on his face. "Because of you low-lifes I'm running late." He said, addressing Yoshinaka who was lying wheezing on the pavement. "I don't care what the Chairman did- if you harass me again, I'll be getting the police involved."

And without a second glance, the boy left them, walking speedily down the road. He had no idea what his father could of done to these men, but knowing him it could be anything. Hopefully something Asano could use against him, but that was probably just wishful thinking.

Asano arrived in class just as Koro-Sensei flew into the room from the open window, panting from practically running up the mountain to make it in time.

"Did you perhaps wake up late today, Asano-kun?" The yellow octopus asked as the blonde took his seat near the back of the class.

"No sir," Asano replied truthfully, deciding not to elaborate. Koro-Sensei didn't ask for more details, he just started on registration.

God, it was just as cold in here as it was outside- what the hell was up with the conditions in E-class? Isn't this assassination-classroom set-up supported by the Government? Could those idiots not provide enough funds for some decent heating? They mustn't care much for the earth's survival if they're willing to let the would-be assassins of the tentacle monster to get hypothermia!

Asano didn't know who was in charge of the budget, but he was sure he could do a better job of negotiations. He'd get this class more money, that's for sure.  
Whatever, he didn't plan on staying here long anyway.

Subtly, Asano reached into his bag and opened the packet of candy hidden in there amongst the books. Quietly, while the Octopus was in the middle of a lecture about syntax, the blonde slipped a sweet into his mouth.  
Asano was three pieces of candy in when Koro-Sensei noticed.

"Now, now young man. You know that there's no eating during lessons. Especially candy that lacks nutritional value." The Octopus said, appearing in front of Asano so fast it was like he had teleported. A red 'X' flashed on his now orange face.

"But eating things high in sugar increases my concentration." The strawberry blonde protested.

"Rules are rules!" Koro-Sensei declared. With a reluctant look in his eyes, Asano reached into his bag and handed Koro-Sensei the packet of sweets.

"Class A's teacher made an exception for me." He grumbled. That earned him a few annoyed looks from the rest of the class.  
"Well, this is E class, were everyone is equal and has to abide by the same rules!" The teacher said, sounding enthusiastic as always(seriously, he might be a monster, but how was he so gung-ho all the time?)

"Yes sir," Asano said, sounding irritated. He glanced to the side.

"Anyway!- " Koro-Sensei said, pocketing the confiscated food and continuing with the lesson. "The ordering of words is important, depending on were you put them it can emphasise certain aspects of your writing- "

The rest of the lesson continued as normal; Koro-Sensei gave them another weird writing exercise to do (hey, at least it was memorable), Karma managed to write something rude again while still staying within the rules, and Rio Nakamura got scolded for shooting her gun during lesson time.

It was the end of the Literacy lesson Asano was waiting for; the clock struck 9:30, and as predicted, Koro-Sensei pulled out Asano's bag of candy from his robes, pulled open the packet and poured the sweets into his mouth, eating them. He was like some sort of vacuum cleaner.

It took a moment for it to take effect; Asano watched the target intently for any kind of change.

One moment, Koro-Sensei was grinning like normal, chewing on the candy, the next, the bottom part of his face appeared to melt.

"W- Wha!" He gurgled, as what used to be his jaw liquified into slime. The class looked at him, their faces were a mixture of horrified and curious (since a lot of people were too used to Koro-Sensei's general weirdness to be shocked any more).

"Um, Sensei- what's wrong with your face?" Kayano asked, as the bottom part of the teacher's face dripped onto the floor. Asano grinned; Koro-Sensei was incapacitated, now was his chance!  
He stood up out of his chair, and fire his gun, aiming right for his teacher's head.  
He hit and Koro-Sensei was killed instantly.  
-Is what should of happened, but instead, the tentacle monster dodged out of the way, just as quickly as ever, Asano fired again, but he already knew it was useless- Even with a injury like that, Koro-Sensei was still as fast as ever.

"Ah, I see now." The Octopus said, his jaw already starting to reform as he stood in front of a confused-looking class. "Asano, you mixed Anti-Sensei material into the candy you tricked me into eating."  
The class looked a mixture of surprised and impressed, Isogai even gave him a; "Whoa, well done, Asano!"  
The strawberry blonde didn't know why he was being congratulated for failure.

Asano sat down, clenching his fists; The plan hadn't been easy. He had to melt down Anti-Sensei BB's along with the candy. It had taken several tries to get the amount of each right so that the Anti-Sensei material couldn't be discerned from the green rock candy. Not only that, but he had to re-package it all perfectly, and on top of everything, the cook probably thought he was insane now for baking BB bullets into sweets! (Although she was too afraid to even question why).

"I commend you for such a crafty assassination attempt!" Koro-Sensei said. His face was almost fully reformed now.

"Thank you, sir." Asano said through gritted teeth- He didn't want to be praised for failure by his target! It was patronising!

"Although, judging from those dark circles under your eyes, you stayed up all night on this, which I can't say I condone. Well-rested kids learn the best, after all!" Koro-Sensei said. "What would of made the assassination attempt more effective would be if you had gotten your classmates involved, so you had more fire-power against me when I was incapacitated."  
There was a ripple of agreement throughout the class.

"Relay on your classmates more." Kataoka Megu told him, with that same firm tone she had always used at class rep meetings. Great, another lecture on the virtues of comradery.

"Yeah! Don't be trying to swindle us out of our share of the ten-billion bounty!" Terasaka added.

"I think saving the world is more important than lining your pockets." Asano said, folding his arms.

"Now class- it's time for your next lesson; Geography!" Koro-Sensei said quickly, before an argument could develop. He pulled down a map of the world. "Now, let's talk about Europe- "

Asano spent the rest of the lesson in a bad mood- Of course the plan didn't work! He should of put more time into it, he had gotten too careless, too carried away trying to see the fruits of his labour. There was a AI with machine guns at the back of the class, he could of used it.  
"Has anyone ever told you your a swore-loser?" Karma whispered from somewhere behind him, sounding amused. Asano hadn't been told that, because he didn't recall ever loosing at anything before this year (not counting his father).

"Has anyone ever told you not to talk during class?" The blonde retorted in a hushed voice, not bothering to turn around.

"Okay then, just go back to pouting in silence." The Red-head said. Asano was tempted to tell him that he wasn't pouting, he was frowning. There was an important distinction- but he instead opted to ignore Akabane and focus on the lesson.

Since yesterday, the animosity between the two seemed to have lightened just a little. They were still acting the same as always, but since Karma had stuck up for Gakushu the atmosphere had changed.

That Afternoon after school was finished, Asano left the ramshackle building along with the rest of his classmates.

It had been an interesting day as usual; Koro-Sensei had taught them History by having students represent countries and getting them to act out how world war one had started (Asano thought it was childish, but it certainly made it more memorable and fun than how they were taught it in A class, were the teacher just gave a rushed verbal explanation).

In languages they were put into pairs and had to hold a conversation in french (He was paired with Rio Nakamura since they were both of a simmilar level. Asano was careful not to do too well though, and attract Irina-Sensei's attention).

And finally, in PE they were doing target practice again. The former student council president was already one of the best at marksmanship in the class, but even he couldn't compare to Chiba's long-range sniping or Hayami's skill at hitting a moving target. It frustrated him, but Asano had always had a grudging respect for talent.

He was walking through one of the deserted streets at the base of the mountain, when suddenly, something hard and blunt hit him over the back of the head.  
What the hell?  
He prevented himself from falling by grabbing the wall, and turned around quickly, facing his assailant.

Kira Yoshinaka. He was stood there with his two cronies from before, Ginger and Face-tattoo.

"You know you can go to prison for assault?" Asano hissed, enraged (Because that blow to the head had actually really hurt!). He clutched the back of his head with one hand, while getting himself into a defensive fighting position.

"You think we're just gonna let you go to the police? That's cute." Face-tattoo said, he grinned, revealing a row of crooked teeth. Asano narrowed his eyes- so it was a fight they wanted? He weighed his options; He was clearly at a disadvantage, there was three of them, and Yoshinaka was holding a baseball bat, but reasoning with them seemed of the table.

It happened so fast- There was a moment of tense silence were the gang squared up to him, then, all at once, they went in for the attack.  
Face-tattoo swung for him first, Asano grabbed his wrist and pulled him forwards, using him to defend himself against Ginger's kick. He kept his eye's on the baseball bat Yoshinaka was holding- it would be bad if he were hit again, his head was already throbbing.  
If he could just create an opening, he could escape these lunatics!

The black-haired man raised his bat to swing it, Asano quickly kicked it out of his hands. It went skittering across to the other side of the street.

"Little shit- " Yoshinaka growled, and suddenly, he tackled the teen. Both of them fell to the floor with a heavy thud. The Strawberry blonde felt the wind knocked out of him for a brief moment as he collided with the ground, the weight of Yoshinaka on top of him.

'I have gone from being the number one student in the school to fighting on the streets with thugs that belong in a mental institution' Flashed through his mind.

Before he had a chance to do anything, Asano felt a strong pair of hands wrap around his throat.

"You think I'm a useless lowlife! I can see it in your eyes!" Yoshinaka hissed, as he strangled Asano. "But I'm not! I'm strong. And I'm smart- this morning I provoked you in order to assess your fighting style!"

The blonde tried to pry the man's hands off of his neck, as he struggled to gasp down air.  
Dammit!

The Blonde gave up trying to pull him off, and instead, clenched his fist, and punched Yoshinaka hard in the face. The Man let out a cry of pain, as blood streamed down his nose. He brought his hands to his face, letting go of Asano. The boy gulped down air quickly.

"Am I suppose to be impressed with somebody who can't even take on a teenager alone?" Asano yelled, grabbing Yoshinaka to push him off. He stopped suddenly when he felt something cold and sharp pressed against his stomach- to his horror, he saw that the black haired man was holding a knife against him.

"It doesn't matter the tactic you use, as long as you fulfil your objective. That's something the Chairman taught me." Yoshinaka said, as a grin spread across his face. There was a dark look in his eyes, and his nose was still bleeding. "You shouldn't let pointless notions like fairness get in the way of winning, I bet he taught you the same thing, right?"  
Asano narrowed his eyes- His father had taught him that, he never had any qualms about not playing fair, after all.

"Just what the hell do you want exactly?" The teen asked, not daring to move too much. He was hyper-aware of the knife against him. He couldn't tell if Yoshinaka was bluffing or if he was really planning on using it. He couldn't believe he'd let his guard down enough to lose to this guy.

"Simple- we want revenge against your bastard of a father for ruining our lives!" Yoshinaka said. He had one hand over his nose and one hand held tight on the knife. "I was a bright kid in middle school, you know? But I got into a few fights and he sent me to E class. The conditions were so bad that I could never catch up- I couldn't get into a good highschool- He ruined my future! It was the same for Sugi and Tsunakatsu!"

Face-tattoo and Ginger both nodded.

"We were locked up in that damn Mountain hut and treated worse than dirt!" Face-tattoo said,

"A tragic as that is- " Asano said, hardly able to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. He was annoyed at them, and at himself. "- doing this wont change anything! And if you want revenge on the Chairman, then coming after me is ineffective."

"Of course it'll be effective! Your his son- The ultimate product of his education." Yoshinaka said, that wide, humorless grin still on his face. "In all those stupid articles about what a great educator he is, your mentioned in most of them- the Prodigy- ha! Showing the Chairman how a couple of so-called low-lifes can break the ultimate product of his education; That is our revenge."

"Break? What the hell do you mean by that?" Asano asked- Something about Yoshinaka's words made the teen's blood run cold, but being viewed as a product, a tool a trophy, or as some sort of extension of the Chairman was nothing new to him.

"What's wrong? Are you frightened?" Yoshinaka taunted.

"Irritated would be more accurate." The blonde said, turning his head away. Suddenly, Yoshinaka jabbed the knife into him, not very deep but enough to draw blood.  
Asano bit down on his tongue to prevent himself from crying out. The knife was suddenly against his neck, he could feel the cold pressure against his jugular.

"Now we're gonna both stand up, and if you make any sudden moves- I'll slit open your neck."

Gakushu glared at him- he weighed up his options; He could resist, but Yoshinaka really might stab him, all it would take was the slightest swipe of the knife and he'd bleed out on the floor. For now, it was best to pretend to be complaint and wait for an opening.

Why did he have to deal with the people his father pissed off?

The two of them got to their feet, slowly, Yoshinaka kept the knife close to Asano's neck at all times. Ginger and Face-tattoo loomed over them, Face-tattoo had retrieved the bat and was holding in tight in his hands.  
The black haired man slung his arm over Asano, still pointing the knife to his throat.

"Let's go for a little walk down that alley- it's nice and out of view." Yoshinaka said, he started to walk, pulling the Teen along with him, his two Cronies trailed close behind them.  
Wildly, he tried to think of a plan;

If he could just put some distance between them, he could use his anti-Sensei BB gun.

Maybe if he grabbed the knife?

There must be some way to distract them!

There must be something!  
Asano felt his mouth go dry, his heart pounded in his chest as his throat constricted. He was feeling something he wasn't used to: Helpless.

"Don't blame us for this- It's the Chairman's fault." Face-tattoo said, scowling. "If it weren't for him, I coulda been someone."

"It's true. If I wasn't put in E class I could get a good job! A house of my own! A girlfriend!" Yoshinaka said, from behind Asano. He was so close, the blonde could feel his breath against his ear. Disgusting. "All that's left for me to do now is prove we're strong by taking revenge!"

Asano thought of the members of E class now- would they ever do anything like this? Never.

"You're full of nonsense, you know?" Asano hissed. "The E class this year faced the same treatment you did, but instead of using it as an excuse to become thugs they overcame it! They beat A class in the finals, and in sports! And they did it all without looking for revenge or dragging people down to their level!"

There was a heavy moment of silence, Yoshinaka seemed dumbstruck. Asano was shocked by his own words: They had just kind of spilled out. He was just glad nobody in E class had heard him, he didn't want them to know that they had impressed him.

"You little brat! What the hell do you know about what I went through!" Yoshinaka yelled suddenly, going to strike Gakushu; Yoshinaka had made his suffering in E class part of his identity, he used it to justify everything he did. Having it questioned enraged him. In his rage, he took the knife away from Asano's neck a split second- that was all he needed.

Asano dodged his punch and kicked him in the stomach, he turned to leave but face-tattoo grabbed one arm, Ginger got the other.

"Yoshi! Calm the fuck down and get the sedative out of the bag!" Ginger commanded as Gakushu tried to struggle out of his grip. "This kid is strong as fuck!"

"I know! I know!" Yoshi growled, he pulled the black bagpack of his shoulders and pulled something out; A small black case, he opened it. Lying inside was a syringe filled with liquid. Asano's eyes widened in horror.

"Don't you dare!" The teen yelled, trying to pull his arms out of the men's grip.

"There's no need to be scared, this'll just make you nice and docile." Yoshinaka said, the smile returning to his face. "Hold him still- "  
He approached slowly, each step loud and deliberate, the syringe held in his fingers.

"What's going on?"

All four of them turned when they heard the voice; There, standing at the entrance to the alley was a small boy in a Kunugigawa uniform, with long blue hair pulled up onto his head in pigtails; Nagisa Shiota.

"Get lost kid, this isn't any of your business." Yoshinaka said. He put the syringe in his pocket and pulled out his knife. "Don't try to get involved or I'll cut out those pretty blue eyes of yours!"

Nagisa surveyed the scene quickly; He didn't know what was going on exactly, but he went into battle-mode on instinct; There were three attackers. They were tall and muscular, clearly strong enemies- They had at least two weapons; A bat and Knife. They likely had more. Nagisa could tell by their stance and expression that they did not fear him at all, and viewed him as weak. There anxiety levels weren't high enough for him to use his 'insta-kill technique'; The Clap.

"If you don't leave in five seconds you'll regret it. A little kid like you has no place here!" Yoshinaka said, showing of his knife.

Asano and Nagisa's eyes met briefly. Gakushu mentally urged him to run- He'd seen Nagisa perform in PE, he wasn't particularly strong or fast, if he got involved now he'd just get beaten, it was pointless.

Nagisa didn't have a weapon, and they were stronger- if he were to fight them head-on it would be his loss.  
There was only one thing to do; He turned away from the alley and left.

"That's right!" Yoshinaka called after him. "Weaklings should know their place."

Asano watched Nagisa go- Of course that was what would happen. He shouldn't expect help from others when he can't even defend himself properly. It's not like he and Nagisa are even friends so it's not like he could blame the boy for not wanting to put himself in danger.

"Now, where were we?" Yoshinaka said, pulling out the syringe.  
Suddenly, almost faster than the eye could see, a dark figure leaped down from the top the building and landed in behind Yoshinaka swiftly and silently. The figure raised his hand and chopped the man on his neck, precisely on one of his pressure points, knocking him out.

Before Yoshinaka had hit the floor, the figure was already stood behind Ginger and Face tattoo. Two whacks. Asano felt them fall to the ground either side of him, their grip loosening on his wrists.  
What was this?

Asano felt a strange feeling, like the being behind him was something dangerous. He could sense an almost overwhelming bloodlust, he felt a shiver run down his spine.  
Slowly, he turned around only to come face-to-face with Nagisa.

"Are you alright, Asano-kun?" The blue-haired boy asked. All the blood lust from seconds earlier dissipated. Nagisa just looked like his usual self, a worried expression on his face. "The back of your head's bleeding."

Asano stared at him as if he were a ghost. "You knocked them out?" He said in disbelief. Nagisa nodded.

"Sorry if it looked like I was abandoning you. I just needed a surprise attack to take these guys out." He said, a little sheepishly.  
There was no way that this was the same person who'd just wiped out a gang of thugs! How could someone like this be so powerful? Asano didn't say anything, still shocked by the hidden power he'd just witnessed.

Nagisa wasn't particularly smart or academic, how had he managed to beat then so easily.

"Are you sure your alright? How hard did you hit your head?" Nagisa asked, Asano came to his senses- He was still shocked, but he could at least act respectably!

"Yes, I'm fine. I had the situation under control but I am grateful that you stepped in, Thank you very much." Asano said, once again using formality to mask his feelings. He'd just been rescued by Nagisa Shiota, of all people, but right now he was still too shocked to be humiliated.

"Sure, don't mention it!" Nagisa smiled innocently, as if he was being thanked for something normal. Even though he'd just been in a fight, he didn't seem one edge at all.

"I should sort this out- " Asano said, looking over at the three unconscious bodies at his feet.

"Maybe we should call the police they had that knife and a syringe they seemed pretty dangerous." Nagisa said. "Why were they after you anyway? ...I mean- you don't have to tell me if you don't want to!"

How could somebody so deadly be so timid?

"They wanted revenge against the Chairman or something- And yes, I think the police are a good idea." Asano said, pulling out his phone from his pocket. Thankfully it hadn't been damaged in the fray.  
Nagisa walked over to the black bag pack that lay abandoned on the floor. "I wonder what's in here- " He started to say, when suddenly, Yoshinaka sprung up from the floor- he must of just been playing dead- and before either of the two boys had a chance to do anything, in a wild frenzy, Yoshinaka jammed the syringe straight into Nagisa's leg.


	7. Sleepover

The scene seemed to freeze for a moment; Yoshinaka's hand gripped on the syringe that was now imbedded in Nagisa's leg, the blue haired boy stood there in shock, Asano's eyes widened as he realised what had happened. Nobody moved for a fraction of a second. Even Yoshinaka seemed shocked by his own actions; A wild impulsive attack done out of desperation.

The blue haired boy opened his mouth as if to say something, but instead swayed on his feet and then dropped to the floor like a marionette who's strings had been cut.  
Asano was there in an instant, managing to catch him before he hit the ground, the syringe still sticking out of his leg.

"Shiota-kun?"

Nagisa opened his eyes blearily. "I feel.. weird." He said, his voice slurred and his eyes unfocused. The blonde grit his teeth, looking up, his violet eyes meeting with Yoshinaka's pitch black ones. He felt anger surge through him.

"Why the hell did you attack him? Shiota isn't the one you're after." The blonde hissed. Yoshinaka may be injured from Nagisa's attack, but Gakushu was still careful not to let his guard down.

"That little psycho shouldn't of interfered!" Yoshinaka yelled, there was both fear and outrage in his voice. He looked around at his two companions, ginger and face tattoo; Both knocked out on the ground. "He took out both of my men in an instant! Just what the fuck is he?"

"He's my classmate." Asano said, glaring at at the man in front of him. Nagisa was still conscious, but hardly. His face was paling and his breathing slowing. A strange feeling filled Gakushu- a mixture between regret and anger. Could this be what guilt felt like? Nagisa had gotten hurt because of his own incompetence.

"He's a monster." Yoshinaka spat, his voice ragged. "We were so fucking close, dammit."

Slowly, Asano lowered Nagisa to the floor gently and stood up to his full height in front of the blue haired boy almost protectively, facing Yoshinaka who was still on the ground.

"Tell me exactly what kind of drug you gave him. What kind of sedative?" The blonde demanded, a dark aura seemed to exude from him. Yoshinaka scrambled to his feet hastily. Without his men and his weapons, he was the one at a disadvantage now.

"Or what?" The black-haired man sneered. "Our plan for revenge is ruined, I have no job, no money, nothing to live for! There's nothing more you can take from me, the Chairman took everything."

"You seem to still have a few teeth left." Asano growled darkly, raising his fist to strike. He breathed heavily as anger and adrenaline surged through him. He balled his fists so tight that his nails left half-moon indentations on his palm, fine tremors ran down his arm to his hands.  
He wanted to beat Yoshinaka for what he did to Nagisa, and erase from his memories the image of himself as weak, and replace it with one of strength. He reached for the baseball bat that was lying a few feet behind him.  
A tug on the bottom of his shirt stopped him- he turned to see Nagisa, leaning up on his hands, his blue eyes blurry.

"Don't.. He's not worth it." The blue haired boy said. He could sense Asano's rage. Gakushu looked at him.

"He's not going to sit by and let me get you to a hospital. I need to deal with him- "

"Please calm down your going to go too far and do something you'll regret." Nagisa said, his eyes were still hazy but there was urgency in his voice. Asano faltered, and looked down at his fist that was still shaking. The other boy was right- this unrestrained anger was dangerous.

"Just do whatever, Chairman's brat! This is just like fucking high school; getting beat up by the mainschool students all over again!" Yoshinaka yelled bitterly.

"We're not from the main school- we're in both from E class!" Nagisa said, his slurred speech didn't diminish the pride in his voice. The black haired man looked shocked.

"Both of you? The Chairman threw his own son into E class?" Yoshinaka said in disbelief. Gakushu felt a spike of irritation, but didn't say anything- he approached the man wanting to end this quickly then leave.

"Wait!" The black haired man cried "I wont fight anymore!.. We're basically the same- we both got screwed over by the Chairman."

"We are nothing alike!" The blonde hissed- he thought himself a lot more sane than Yoshinaka for one.

"I get that you're mad, kid, but that sedative I gave your friend harmless- just knocks you out! I take it myself sometimes!"

"I'm not interested in your drug problem." Asano said, but he couldn't deny the rush of relief he felt- the man didn't seem to be lying.  
Yoshinaka' hypocrisy was annoying though- It didn't matter if Asano and Nagisa were in A or E class, what he did was messed up. Karma's words flashed through his mind;  
Status doesn't determine how much a person's worth.

"We should work together! Bring down the chairman!" Yoshinaka told him, his words almost made Gakushu shiver in disgust. He balled his fists again. The black haired man noticed and backed away- "So you're still pissed- I'll give you time to cool down. But then, we'll talk!"

The man gave him a toothy grin, that deranged look still in his eyes, before he turned and ran down the other side of the alley climbing up a fire-exit on the side of the building. Asano would of chased him, probably could of caught him, but there was no way he could just leave Nagisa in this condition.

Reluctantly, he let Yoshinaka run off and turned back to Nagisa.

Ginger and Face-tattoo were still lying almost motionless on the floor- some 'comrade' Yoshinaka was to them, just leaving them like that.

"Can you stand?" Asano asked, extending a hand to him. Nagisa took it and pulled himself up, his legs wobbly.

"Jus' about." He slurred, leaning on the taller boy.

"I'll call an ambulance- " The blonde said- he could deal with Yoshinaka later, for now this was more important.

"You can't! If I end up in hospital, my mother will worry- " the blue haired boy cried, he trailed of as if he had more to say. "There'd be trouble if she knew I'd been in a fight.."

"Your brave enough to take out three armed thugs but you can't face your own mother?" Asano said, raising an eyebrow, this boy was such a strange contrast of weakness and strength. He wondered what kind of woman his mother was, why kind of relationship they had.  
Nagisa bit his lip and looked to the side.

"Please." He said, looking at Asano with misted-over blue eyes. "He said it wasn't dangerous, so I don' need to go the hospital."

Gakushu paused before answering, completely conflicted; Yoshinaka had said it was just a sedative- but could they really trust him? But Nagisa seemed adamant, and it felt wrong somehow, forcing him.

"What he gave you might be poisoned!" Asano told him, he wanted to hurry up and get out of here as quickly as possible, this dirty back alley with weeds sprouting up from underneath cracked stone and two thugs lying unconscious.

"Then get Ritsu to scan it- " Nagisa said, beads of swear on his forhead. It must take intense will-power for him to stay awake right now. "She- her data is on my phone."  
Without hesitation, Asano pulled Nagisa's phone pocket; He had seen other students use Ritsu on their mobiles, she had apparently downloaded her software onto class E's phones.

"Ritsu?" He said aloud, like he'd seen the rest of the class do from time to time. Still, it felt weird addressing a phone. The screen flickered to life, showing Ritsu's calm blue eyes and smiling face.

"Hi! How can I help?" She said, then frowned. "Asano-kun, why are you on Nagisa-kun's phone?"

"Shiota's been.. Hurt.. " The blonde said, he pulled the syringe up from the floor, it still had remnants of the amber coloured liquid in it. "Can you analyse this to test if it's toxic?"

"Of course!" Ritsu said, a worried look on her virtual face. "I'll try to contact Koro-Sensei too- "  
S

he closed her eyes for a moment before speaking. "That substance is gamma-hydroxybutyric acid."

Asano felt a flood of relief. "So it really isn't toxic."

"Correct," Ritsu said, "It is γ-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), also known as 4-hydroxybutanoic acid, is a naturally occurring substance found in the human central nervous system, as well as in wine, beef, small citrus fruits, and in small amounts in almost all animals. Its effects have been described anecdotally as comparable with alcohol, such as euphoria, disinhibition, enhanced sensuality and empathogenic states. At higher doses, GHB may induce nausea, dizziness, drowsiness, agitation, visual disturbances, depressed breathing, amnesia, unconsciousness."

It was like speaking to a wikipedia page.

"Did you manage to contact Koro-Sensei?" Asano asked, still supporting Nagisa. He wasn't good at situations like these, caring for other people definitely wasn't his forte. Looking after someone when they were sick or injured was something he'd never had to do before. Something about the other boy's dead weight against his arm made him feel uneasy. But if it wasn't for Nagisa, it could've been him that was blacked out and at the mercy of Yoshinaka and his gang.

"Unfortunately, no. He's out of cell-phone range at this time; I believe he mentioned that he'd be going into space to see a meteor shower over Australia!"

"Of all the times- " Asano growled, although he knew he shouldn't expect someone to swoop in and solve everything. "Shiota- Are you still awake? Can you tell me your address?"  
He would just take him home, they were too out the way to call a taxi.  
Nagisa looked up at him slowly. "Can't go home like this." He mumbled. "Mother will.. worry.."

"Just tell me were you live!"

Nagisa giggled drunkenly, his face flushed- he didn't sound at all like his reserved usual self, he was clearly on the influence of something.  
"No!"  
Gakushu resisted the urge to snap at him- (After all, the blunette had only gotten drugged trying to save him).

"Fine. I'll take you to my house while you.. Sober up. Is that acceptable?"

He knew his father wouldn't be home yet, and the cleaners weren't due to be in today.

"Mhmm." Nagisa hummed in agreement.

"Ritsu, would you send an anonymous call to the police alerting them to a disturbance in this area?" The blonde asked, since there was still a black bag full of drugs, weapons and who knows what lying around here.

"Of course!" She said, smiling brightly from the screen (Asano made a mental note to get her data on his phone, a portable AI seemed like a pretty useful thing to have).

Asano lifted Nagisa onto his back (it was a good job he was so light), and started towards home. He hoped he didn't see anybody he knew. His blazer covered most of the blood on his shirt, at least, but he still looked like a delinquent that had been in a fight, and Nagisa was basically drunk right now. Just perfect.  
At least his house wasn't far from here, he'd just take a more obscure route, get the other boy sobered up, then take him home- What could possibly go wrong?

About fifteen minutes into the journey, Asano rounded the corner onto his street- It was full of large houses with enough space between them that nobody ever had to complain about the noise next door, and the residents could comfortably ignore each other.

The dimming afternoon sun bathed the street in an orange light; Finally.

Asano could tell by his breathing Nagisa was asleep against him. He walked towards his house, glad to finally be back, when he noticed a figure standing outside;  
Tall, red hair, black blazer that definitely wasn't part of uniform regulation..  
Why the hell was Karma Akabane here?

As if reading his mind, Ritsu started to speak. He could feel her 'voice' vibrate from the phone in Nagisa's pocket.

"Since it was kind of an emergency and you were injured too, I contacted the nearest class E student to come and meet us here." She said. "I found your address from the school database, I hope you don't mind!"

"I do mind!" Asano said, irritated- Scrap what he said about downloading Ritsu onto his phone, technology with a mind of it's own was not a good idea!

"Ah! I'm terribly sorry, I was just worried about you both!" She said. Before Asano could make himself even more insane by continuing his argument with Nagisa's phone, Karma noticed him and started walking over, an unreadable expression on his face.

"What happened?" He asked, non of his usual playfulness in his expression. "Ritsu just messaged me saying it was an emergency."  
He hurried over even quicker, noticing Nagisa's unconscious state

"Nagisa-kun!?" He said, a worried frown on his face, the type of expression Asano had never seen on the red-head before. His mercury eyes blazed with a sort of protective anger. "Who hurt him? Was it you?"

"Of course not!" The blonde said, Karma was being irrational. Nagisa woke up, hearing the commotion. He opened his eyes blearily and smiled at Karma from over Asano's shoulder.  
"Kaarmaa!" He said happily, almost tripping over his words "You're hair looks really... Red!"

The red head's angry expression melted away into one of confusion. He raises an eyebrow.

"Ritsu... Was the emergency that Nagisa went and got himself drunk? Asano too, by the looks of him."

"I'm not drunk!" The blue haired boy whined, definitely not himself right now.

"I ran into some trouble, Shiota intervened on my behalf, and they managed to get him with a sedative, he didn't want to go home so I'm taking him here to 'sober up' so to speak." The blonde explained hurriedly, feeling irritated he carried on walking, Karma now alongside him.

"Was it assassins? A guy in white robes names Shiro? A crazy dude with no face?" The red-head asked, Asano scowled.

"This is real life, you've been playing too many video games." Gakushu said dryly.

"You have no idea." Karma half-chuckled. He leant on the door to the Asano house once they reached it. The blond pulled out his key.

"If you're not going to help, go home." Gakushu growled as he put the key into the lock.

"And leave you alone with Nagisa unconscious and defenceless? No way!" The red head said, Asano gritted his teeth- what was Karma trying to imply?

"If you're that worried, take him to your house." The blond said through gritted teeth.

"Almost any other day of the year my house would be empty and that would be fine. But there's kind of a camera crew there right now." The red haired boy said with a slight shrug. "Our house is getting featured in some boring house magazine because of it's 'unusual' decor. I don't think now's a good time to bring a drunk friend over."

"Not drunk!" Nagisa reminded, sleepily. Reluctantly, Asano opened the door to his house and typed in the alarm code. Having other people here like this almost felt like an invasion, he never had friends over, ever. But he was too exhausted to bother arguing about it.  
He pulled off his shoes at the doorway, Karma did the same.

"This place is pretty big." Karma commented, looking around. "I kind of expected something more ominous though; Creepy family sigils, or maybe the severed heads of your enemies lining the walls."

The house was big and fancy, but soulless somehow. It was devoid of any family pictures. The decor, although tasteful was bland somehow. It was like a hotel, stylish but no personal touch, this house could belong to almost anybody.

"Don't touch anything, don't break anything." Gakushu warned, the red head rolled his eyes as they walked down the long empty corridor, and up the cold grey stairs towards his room;  
Asano's room was an award cabinet. Even Karma was slightly in awe (just slightly). All manner of trophies and certificates crowded the shelves and filled the walls;

'1st place in national junior talent competition'

'1st place in District cooking competition'

"1st place in national Judo tournament.'

'1st place in national mock exam'

Cooking, music, art, academics, sport, community service. He had awards for an insane amount of things.

Gakushu set Nagisa down on his bed, the boy still seemed ineberhated.

"S' shiny in here." He said.

"Are these all for first place?" Karma asked, glancing at a medal for horse-riding, that was hanging next to one for archery. He kneeled down next to Nagisa, checking his forehead.

"Of course. I wouldn't keep them otherwise.. Why would I want something celebrating my own failure in my room?" Asano scoffed. In the past, he had been even more overzealous in collecting awards than he was now- As soon as he heard word of there being a big tournament in something, wether it be a spelling bee or Gymnastics he would spend a month completely absorbing himself in learning that skill completely, so on the day of the competition he could swoop in and beat other kids who'd been doing it for years. In school and out, he'd try collect as many awards as he could.  
Because he thought maybe if he got enough his Father would be proud of him. Maybe if he reached a certain amount his father would acknowledge him. He knew that was childish now.

"So I wont find a copy of the latest results from finals then?" Karma asked, mischief dancing in his eyes. He was untying Nagisa's shoe laces.

"No." Gakushu said, scowling.

Suddenly, the blue haired boy on the bed shot up and grabbed Karma by the wrist. The red head looked at him questioningly for a moment. Then out of nowhere, Nagisa lurched forward and pulled Karma down onto the bed, pinning him with one hand on his arm, the other over his throat.

"Karmaa! Look at the new fighting moves Mr Karasuma taught me!" He said, gleefully, his hand tightening around his captive with a surprising amount of strength.

"Nagisa- remind me to never, ever get you drunk!" The red head chocked, trying to pry Nagisa off himself, but the other boy continued to cling to him, smiling.  
Asano hadn't realised how terrifying Nagisa was until today. The blue haired boy just smiled wider.

"This ones a chocker hold it works bes' as a surprise attack." He said, happily.

"That's great but if you don't let go you'll actually kill me." Karma gasped out.

"That's okay. I know how to dispose of bodies." Asano said, sounding far too serious. Nagisa laughed again, then stopped suddenly, his grip loosening. He fell forwards on top off Karma, suddenly asleep.

"How long will Nagisa be like this?" Karma asked, frowning up at the ceiling.

"A few hours, probably." Asano said.

"I SO need to use this for blackmail material." Karma laughed, sitting up on the bed.

"I thought you were here to help."

"I am helping." The red head said, picking up Nagisa's phone and typing something. "I text his mum to say he's staying at a friends, so now she wont go batshit crazy worrying about him."

"Is she really that bad? Shiota wouldn't even let me take him to the hospital in case she found out." Gakushu said. Karma gave him a knowing look.

"She's pretty bad." He said grimly, but there was finality in his tone saying the topic was closed. Asano took a step towards the window, when suddenly he felt the world lurch, and his head pound with pain- Oh yeah, his injuries. He'd been ignoring the pain so he'd almost forgotten about them, but he supposed he should probably do something.

"Come with me." He told Karma as he walked out the door. "I don't trust you alone in my room."

"Why? Are you afraid that I'll find your diary? Or you're secret porn stash?" The red head teased, but he followed him nonetheless. They made it to the kitchen; Like the rest of the house it was big, but felt empty somehow (it also still had a faint smell of melted BB's).

"If you want a drink, make one, but don't break any glasses." Gakushu told the other boy.

"Are you always so polite and kind to guests?"

"You can go home whenever!"

"So you're getting into street fights now?" Karma asked with an amused smirk, he lent against the kitchen counter.

Asano merely grunted in response, deciding not to indulge the other boy's taunting.

"And you say I'm the delinquent!" Karma added, laughing. The blonde continued to ignore him, acting as if he wasn't there. He took of his blazer and unbuttoned his bloodied shirt and inspected the damage; There was a narrow cut on his abdomen were Yoshinaka had sliced him with the knife. It wasn't very long, but it was deep enough that the front of his shirt was sticky with blood. He winced slightly as he pulled it off, not noticing the red head's shocked gaze.

"Mind explaining why you look like you've just been stabbed?" Karma asked, masking his concern with sarcasm.

"Because I was." Asano said curtly, pressing his bunched-up shirt against the wound to staunch the bleeding "Well- perhaps cut would be a more accurate term."

He turned to rummage around the kitchen cupboards looking for the first aid kit- Did he even own one? He didn't recall ever getting injured enough to use one, so he'd never needed one before. He didn't notice Karma had walked over to him until the other boy was right next to him.

"Sit on the counter." The red-head commanded, Asano scoffed.

"Excuse me?"

"Watching you struggling to stop yourself from bleeding to death is just too pathetic." Karma told him with a taunting smile that didn't reach his eyes. "So just this once I'll help you out."

"You will do no such thing! First of all, I don't need any help, Second, I know better than to trust you, third- ow!"

Asano was cut off when Karma pressed a hand over the back of his head- right were he'd been hit with the baseball bat, making him cry out in pain.

"What the hell, Akabane!"

"You're not really in any condition to protest, so do as I say~ Besides, I bet you've never even dressed a wound before." Karma told him. Damn sadist. Reluctantly, Gakushu pulled himself up on the countertop.

"Fine. But if you try anything, I swear- "

"I wont." Karma said, rolling his eyes. He picked up a clean dishcloth from the side of the sink and ran it under lukewarm water from the tap, then pressed it to Asano's stomach, wiping away dried blood. Rivulets of red-tinged water ran off him onto the counter top. Gakushu narrowed his eyes- probably annoyed that the pristine kitchen was getting dirty.  
Karma pulled a bottle of disinfectant out of his bag.

"At least one of us had enough forethought to carry around a first aid kit." He said, pouring it onto the cloth.

"I don't get into street fights so often that I feel I need to." Asano replied icily. The red-head just pressed the disinfectant against the wound making it sting. "- You're doing that on purpose!"

"Don't be such a baby." Karma laughed. "So, do I get a proper explanation of what happened, or do I just have to wait until Nagisa wakes up. Normal street thugs don't carry around sedatives, this wasn't a random attack. And if they were skilled enough to get Nagisa- "

"It wasn't skill, it was luck." Asano said. "I had no idea that Shiota had so much power."

"Nagisa isn't really strong, or fast, his shooting is average his grades aren't all that impressive. But he has a unique affinity for assassination." The red head said, pulling a bandage out of his bag. There was an undercurrent of frustration in his voice. "He has a natural talent that people like us can't hope to attain."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were jealous." Gakushu taunted. Karma glared at him.

"You didn't answer my question about what actually happened." Karma said, "So far all I can tell is you got yourself into trouble, and Nagisa saved you're sorry ass."

"I wouldn't say 'saved' exactly.. Maybe 'intervened' or 'helped'." The blonde grumbled, although he had to admit to himself that Nagisa had saved him, even if he wouldn't admit it to Karma. "It was just some thugs who wanted revenge against my the Chairman for being put into E class. It was absurd."

He thought of Yoshinaka- how quickly he'd changed his opinion towards him once he found out Asano was in E class. If that bastard showed his face again he wouldn't get away so easily! And his two cronies, what about them? Where they in a hospital now? Or a police station?

"Hmm, well the Chairman does seem like a guy who makes a lot of enemies." Karma said, finishing off the bandaging. "So do you, actually."

"Well, I'm sure you're even better at it." Gakushu quipped, irritably. The red head chuckled.

"Probably."


	8. Old friends?

As soon as Asano woke up, his head rested on folded arms over his desk, he knew he had made a big mistake. Last night, he had no other than Karma Akabane, the infamous red-haired delinquent, over at his house (Nagisa Shiota was there too, but he was less of a threat, especially in his inhibberated state).

Gakushu decided he must either have been brave or just plain stupid to accidentally fall asleep while Karma was in the same room (really, if he couldn't handle two all-nighters in a row he must be getting soft).

He lifted his head up off his desk, eyes squinted as the sunlight streamed through a crack in the blackout curtains, then turned to glance around the room; There was a small mound under the blankets that was Nagisa Shiota lying on his bed, and lounging on the floor like he owned the place was Karma Akabane.

The red head's face was illuminated by the light from his phone. As soon as he realised Asano was awake, he grinned.

"Morning, second place." Karma said, with a lazy yawn. "You didn't sleep for long. If you nap sitting up you'll get a sore neck, you know."  
The strawberry blond glared at him.

"What did you do?" He asked- since he knew Akabane would have done something while he was asleep. He didn't feel any different though.

"Whatever do you mean?" Karma said, his mercury eyes wide with false innocence.

"Cut the act. I know you've done something." Asano growled. The red haired boy tutted, shaking his head in mock- disapproval.

"Such a suspicious young man. Verging on paranoia, really." He said, the corner of his lips curling up into his usual taunting smirk. The blond was about to attempt to interrogate him further, but then he caught sight of his own reflection in the mirror; His eyes looked tired, but the thing that caught his attention was '2nd place' scrawled across his forehead in black marker pen, peeking out from under his fringe.  
Oh, Karma was so dead!  
The red head burst out into a fit of laughter.

"Didn't take you long to notice- Guess they don't call you the ace for nothing." He said between chuckles. "Oh- come on, don't look at me like that, I could of done a lot worse and you know it!"

Asano cursed himself for being such a heavy sleeper. He picked up a particularly heavy book, and hurled it at Akabane, before storming off to the bathroom, the sound of Karma's laughter still ringing in his ears.  
I can't remember the last time I heard genuine laughter in this house. The blond couldn't help but think.

The blond stood in front of the mirror, and lifted his fringe up to peer at the damage; black ink scrawled across his head. Great.  
He picked up a sponge and started scrubbing with vigor. Luckily, the ink washed off pretty easily.

"Eh- it's not permanent? What a disappointment." Karma drawled, walking into the bathroom after him, still with that taunting smirk. "Sorry for vandalizing the great Gakushuu Asano's forehead."

"You will be sorry." Asano muttered darkly as he wiped off the last of the ink, his cheeks burning with humiliation. He turned to glower at Karma with violet eyes brimming with contempt. The red haired boy just laughed it off, and stepped forwards, lifting the hem of Gakushu's shirt to inspect the bandaging underneath.

"Hm, yeah, no blood's leaked through. I guess I'm pretty good at first aid after all." He said, casually. "But you'll probably want to change that bandage soon. You know. For hygiene."  
Asano brushed Karma's hand away and looked to the side. "Yes. I know. I'm not an immature idiot- unlike some people."

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Karma teased- Although, on closer inspection he looked rather exhausted himself; There were dark circles under his eyes, apparently he didn't take well to all nighters.

"Watch yourself, Akabane." Asano threatened moodily, as he dried his face and walked out back to the bedroom, Karma following behind him.

When they re-entered the room, Nagisa was just waking up; He was still half-buried under the covers, his blue eyes half-closed and hazy, his long blue hair sticking up in odd directions.

"Ugh. My head hurts." He moaned softly. Asano had no idea how Nagisa could resemble a newborn kitten so much while still being E class' most deadly assassin. Maybe strength and weakness weren't so black and white after all.

"Just try not to move around so much." Karma said, walking over to his smaller friend quickly, a slight hint of concern in his voice, that strange streak of protectiveness he had for Nagisa surfacing again.

"I'll get some water." Asano said swiftly; The blue haired boy was probably in pain because an increase in sodium ions in his brain was causing it to be dehydrated.  
In other words, he had a hangover.

Leaving Karma to tend to Nagisa, Asano flitted downstairs to get a drink. He remembered that the blue haired boy hadn't eaten last night because he was passed out when Gakushuu had boiled some pot-noodle for Karma and himself.  
He quickly made the boy some instant ramen to go with his drink.

The blond was almost as his bedroom door, when suddenly, out of nowhere, the Chairman was standing in front of him.

Asano startled and nearly dropped the tray, bur quickly regained his composure.

"Good morning, Chairman." He said stiffly. His father gave an icy smile, and nodded in acknowledgment. Even though it was early on a Saturday morning, he was still wearing one of his usual crisp suits. He wasn't the type of man to wander around in pyjamas, even if it was his own home.

"Aren't you usually training for assassination this time in the morning? I do hope your not becoming idle." Gakuhou said, stepford-smile still plastered to his face. Asano was instantly on edge; He didn't want the Chairman to know he had a drugged-up classmate and a delinquent holed up in his room. He didn't know what the man would do, or if he would even care or not.

It was the Chairman's unpredictability that was so frightening; Gakushu remembered the zombie-like faces of his friends back in A class when his father brainwashed them before final exams, and the sound of bones snapping, the sight of blood as his father brutalised his foreign friends after the sports festival.

Yes. Gakuhou Asano was a dangerous man.

"Of course I'm not being lazy, I'm just writing an article for something, that's all." The teen said, his face and voice showing no evidence that he was lying. He met his father's penetrating gaze with equally fierce violet eyes. The teen made a move to walk past him, thinking he was in the clear, when the Chairman grabbed his arm firmly.

He instantly felt a spike of dread, but he was careful to keep his expression neutral.

"You don't like beef flavoured ramen." His father said simply, staring at the bowl in his son's hands.  
Why did he notice that? How does he even know the food I like in the first place?

"I felt like a change." He replied, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't realise you were so concerned with the type of instant ramen I ate."  
But the man still didn't let go of his arm, instead, his mauve eyes honed in on the small round bruises on Gakushuu's neck, left from when Yoshinaka had attempted to strangle him.

"How did you get those?" The Chairman asked, still smiling, although he looked anything but happy.

"Training." The teen replied, quickly. He was half tempted to tell his father the real reason, after all, Yoshinaka and his gang only came after him because the Chairman had pissed them off. But Asano knew that if the man found out he'd lost to a gang of street thugs and had to be rescued by an E class student there would likely be some sort of consequence.

His father narrowed his eyes, but his smile didn't falter. He let go of Asano's arm. The blond instantly felt a rush of relief.

"I don't know why you have two E class students in your room, or why you're lying about it." The Chairman said suddenly, his expression unchanging. "But I would of thought you had more productive things to do than waste your time playing nursemaid. It seems you have been influenced by E class' weaknesses you've changed, Asano."

With that, the Chairman left leaving Gakushu staring after him, hardly able to keep the scowl of his face. So his father knew about Nagisa and Karma all along? He should of realised, he was naive to think that man would miss anything.

The Chairman's words still ringing in his head, Asano walked back into his room, tray in hand. Nagisa was sat up in bed, Karma perched on the edge next to him.

"Thank you, Asano-kun." The blue haired boy said, giving him a somewhat nervous smile as the blond handed him the tray. "Sorry if I caused you trouble last night." He blushed slightly. "Or if I did anything um- embarrassing."

"Yeah, you totally did." Karma said, that teasing grin on his face. "You were pretending to be an erotic dancer called Chardonnay."  
Nagisa's face flushed bright red. "N- No way I did not!" He exclaimed.

"You just don't remember because you were so drunk." The red haired boy snickered, delighting in Nagisa's embarrassment.

"I- I'd remember doing something like that- " The shorter boy declared.

"You were even erotic dancing in front of Asano's Dad, it was insane." Karma continued, that glint of mischief sparkling in his mercury eyes.

"The Chairman!?" Nagisa all but yelled, his face even redder than before. "Now I know you're lying- right? ..Right?"

The red haired boy just burst into a fit of laughter. "Seriously you're too easy to mess with sometimes."

Asano looked to the side- Shiota erotic dancing in front of his father was not a mental image he wanted to have.

But still.

He found himself unconsciously smiling at Nagisa's flustered reaction, then instantly feeling a strange stab of regret for having fun with these two.  
You've changed, Asano.

Was it really okay for him to be so carefree when he'd just lost a fight? When he was so weak he couldn't even defend himself from street thugs?

It didn't matter that there was three of them and that they had weapons- Once you loose the reason why didn't matter. He gritted his teeth- He hated to admit it, but his father was right, he was weak.

Nagisa and Karma stayed for a little while before leaving. The two of them both looked worn down, still in their now crumpled school uniforms from the day previous.  
As they left, the Chairman made a point of standing at the top of the stairs, smiling silently without saying a word. It was probably meant to intimidate them. It worked- Gakuhou Asano had a unique way of making the atmosphere feel sombre and heavy.

"Well- see you in school, Asano." Nagisa said, glancing up at the Chairman, then quickly back at Gakushuu before leaving out the door along with Karma, who gave a brief wave.

"Such lovely friends you have." His father said as they left.

"They aren't my friends." Asano snapped, before walking back to his room. He needed to check his planner. He was fairly certain he had things he needed to do today.

Three hours later, at nine, Gakushuu arrived at the large brick building. He'd went to cram school here as a kid, and now he volunteered as a private tutor (it didn't count as a part time job because he wasn't getting paid).

The teen didn't do it out of the good of his heart or anything, of course. It was because working here he got to meet a lot of rich and influential people who sent their precious offspring here.

Connections were an important part of building power, after all. Besides, everyone who he taught were usually other teens at average intelligence or above, Asano would have no idea how to teach people who genuinely struggled with academics like Koro-Sensei could- or God-forbid, actual children.

The blond arrived at the front desk, shooting the secretary a charming smile (although he still felt tired and grumpy on the inside). She smiled back, and blushed at him.

"Hi, Asano, it's been a while since you've came." She said, then checked the computer screen. "You're scheduled for a three hour tutoring session with a new student. He seems like a lovely boy- He asked for you specifically. He's in his last year of middle school studying for his finals."

Asano wondered who would ask for him specifically, not that requests were rare- he had a good reputation here.

He walked in the room, coffee cup in hand, preparing himself for three hours of monotonous teaching.

Sat there on the other side of the room was a pupil, someone who was instantly familiar to Gakushuu;

Half-Shaven, half-spiky brown hair, sharp hazel eyes, tall lanky build.

"Ren... What are you doing here?" The blond asked, taken aback, violet eyes widening slightly. Ren and his old classmates was one of the things he had been trying not to think about. He instantly felt a thrill of nerves; Was Ren here to mock him like Seo and Araki had? He didn't know why that bothered him so much.

"Asano- Hi!." The brunette said, his face splitting into a nervous grin. "I'm here for the tutoring session- well. I'm here to see you, really."

For once, Gakushu felt lost for words. His old classmate's appearance made him feel apprehensive and strangely happy all at once.

"So you want tutoring for the upcoming exams?" Was all the blond could think to say. When it seemed as if emotions were in danger of being discussed, changing to a practical, formal topic was always a go to. "Should we start with maths? That was always your weak spot."

"I've really missed you, you know." Ren gushed, standing up out of the chair he was sat on, and walking over, smiling. It made Asano uncomfortable, how Ren could be so honest with his feelings like that? as if he wasn't afraid they'd be used against him.

"Well, it's certainly been a while." The blond said, taking a seat. He pulled out some books. "I'm surprised you want me to tutor you, seeing as how I couldn't even keep a place in the main school."

"I don't care what class you're in, Asano-kun, you are still you." The brunette said, suddenly leaning in front of Gakushuu, so the other boy couldn't avoid looking him in the eye. "Listen, I'm sorry, okay? I get why you're mad at me. But can you forgive me? I... Still want to be friends."

"Forgive you?" The blond questioned, looking at Ren, confused (and seriously, Asano was getting second-hand embarrassment from how open his former classmate was being- A declaration of friendship, really?) "I'm not mad at you."

"But you haven't answered my emails, and you've been ignoring my calls!" Ren cried, and Asano instantly felt a stab of guilt.

"I'm in E class now. Things have changed. I thought it would be better if I distanced myself from you." The blond explained, in a calm manner as if everything he was saying was rational. He left out the part where he was so apprehensive of hearing Ren's reaction he resorted to ignoring him.

"But I don't care if you're in E class. You don't deserve to be there." The brunette said, defiantly. "So you really aren't angry with me?"

"Why would I be?" Asano questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Because it's my fault you fell into E class in the first place." Ren confessed, looking at the floor. "We let your father brainwash us and we abandoned you. I bombed the test- we all did. If we hadn't failed and let E class beat us all so badly, I'm sure the Chairman would of over-looked you loosing your number 1 spot. Instead you ended up being punished for all of our mistakes."

Asano stared at him, dumbfounded. Was that really how Ren saw things?

"It's true my father mightn't of felt the need to use me as an example if the rest of the class hadn't of failed so badly." Asano started. Ren winced at his words. "But loosing first place is my fault and my fault alone. I can't blame anyone else for that. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what anyone else did, if I hadn't failed I wouldn't of been kicked out of A class."

The brunette stared at his former classmate for a moment, as if mulling his words over in his mind, before smiling once again, and pulling Asano into a hug.

"Thank goodness! I thought I'd have to be doing all sorts of things to earn your forgiveness." Ren gushed. He seemed even more sappy than Gakushu remembered. The blond stood there awkwardly, going ridged at the contact.

"Just how petty do you think I am?" He grumbled. Ren let go of him quickly, as if he suddenly remembered who he was hugging.

"Anyway. What's E class like?" The Poet asked, dodging the question. "You're alright there, aren't you? They aren't horrible to you or anything, right? Actually, you look a little pale, are the conditions as bad as they say? Are those bruises on your neck? Is it violent there? Are you okay?"

Asano grabbed Ren's hand when the other boy reached out to touch his neck, taking a moment to process his onslaught of questions.  
"Did you forget who you're talking to? How weak do you think I am that I'd let being in E class defeat me?" The blond said, with a cold authoritative voice. Then he added with a tone that was a little softer, letting go of Ren's hand. "Thank you for your concern. But E class isn't exactly a hell hole. It's just- different."

"Sorry." The brunette said, although he seemed as if he still had more on his mind he wanted to say. There was a moment of silence, before Ren's face once again split into a grin, this time with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "So- how about the girls?"

"What?"

"I actually envy you a little. There's a lot of cute girls in E class." Ren said suddenly, a lecherous look in his hazel eyes.

"Have any favourites?"

"Not particularly." Asano said, raising an eyebrow skeptically. In this regard, Ren was a lot like Maehara.

"Come on!" The Brunette said suggestively. "What about Yukiko Kanzaki? She's like a true Japanese princess, that long flowing silky black hair- so beautiful! Touka Yada has an amazing body, and the class Rep's like a rose in bloom! Or that blue haired girl with the pigtails is pretty cute. Seriously- why so many hotties in E class? I guess what they say about brainless beauties is true."

"They aren't brainless!" Asano snapped, defensively. He had a serious case of de-ja-vu. He almost expected Okano to appear behind Ren and hit him with her lunch box.

"Sorry. I guess not." Ren said, apologetically. He was surprised; He didn't expect Asano to defend E class. "..So you really haven't hooked up with a girl in E class?"

"No."

"Not even a kiss?"

There was a slight pause were Asano's mind filled with the memory of his first lesson with Irina-Sensei (AKA Bitch-Sensei), before he replied.  
"..No."

"Ah! There was some hesitation! You're holding out on me, Asano!" Ren said, excitedly. "So those marks on your neck are love bites after all!"

"Anyway!" The blond said, suddenly, changing the topic, his cheeks reddened slightly. The look in his eyes left no room for argument, and silenced Ren almost immediately

"You paid for this lesson, didn't you? I will make sure you improve, or else it'll effect my reputation. Get your books out!"

Asano was surprised how easily it was to talk to Ren again. But things seemed different than they were back when they were in A class together; The poet no longer spoke to Gakushuu as if he was his boss, but instead, the two talk like friends.

"You really don't hold back, do you?" Ren said with an exhausted sigh after they left the school building together.

"Hmph. I was going easy on you." The blond replied, crossing his arms. The two of them had just finished the intense tutoring session. The brunette had almost forgotten how brutal the former student council president could be when it came to learning.

The two of them walked to a nearby cafe, sitting down at the table and ordering a drink.

"So. How's things in A class since I left?" Asano asked, taking a sip of tea. It was a question he'd been wondering for a while, but even though it would be easy to find out for himself, he'd been avoiding looking for answers.

"Well... It's changed." Ren started, a pained look behind his hazel eyes. "To tell you the truth. It's pretty much hell; When you left it created a sort of power vacuum- Half the class was competing to be the new leader. Seo wanted to take your place but not everyone takes him seriously with his scores. Without your direction the class is in chaos: Everyone's fighting against each other, and trying to sabotage each other. You know how competitive we are in there. Now it's just aimed at each other. To be honest, I just stay out of it the best I can. But since I currently have the highest score in the class it isn't so easy."

"Really?" Asano said, not even attempting the hide the grin that was growing on his face. An A class in peril, that was sure to piss his father off, this was perfect!

"Hey! You could at least pretend to show a little sympathy." The brunette cried. "The atmosphere there is horrible! Its like a war zone!"

"I really do feel bad for you. I'm here for you if you need anything." Gakushuu said, but his words weren't very convincing when paired with his triumphant expression.

"I'll hold you to that." Ren grumbled, disgruntled, although he was smiling slightly. "Ethics always was your worst subject."

"That isn't a real lesson anyway." Asano retorted, defensively. Although it was true that Ethics lessons were one thing he always struggled with; Why should you help the weak?

Why shouldn't you seek revenge?

Why shouldn't you undermine others?

Why should you be generous?

These were things he never quite grasped, even if he could bluff his way through now.  
To him, the world wasn't made up of Good and Evil. It was the Weak and the Powerful. Morals changed across time and cultures.  
The strong always won.

"But you know- you've changed a little." Ren said, taking a sip of his drink. His words reminded Asano of what his father had said earlier that day.

It seems you have been influenced by E class' weaknesses you've changed, Asano

"I have?"

"Ah- not in a bad way though." Ren said, quickly, putting his hands up defensively. "You just seemed a little more relaxed. Kind of uh- easier to talk to. As a friend rather than a superior."

"I suppose I am becoming weaker." He said, sardonically. But Ren shook his head.

"I wouldn't say so. Being genuine with people instead of hiding behind walls of formality takes a lot of mental strength." The Brunette said, with conviction. Then he added. "Besides. I don't think being weak is always the worst thing you can be."

Asano regarded him, listening to his words, an old forgotten memory filling his head.

"But my teacher says it doesn't matter what grades you get so long as your good. You used to say that too." Asano said, as he walked alongside his father. He was six years old, wearing a school uniform. It was another argument about grades. Gakushuu was a competitive kid, he liked to do the best in class (he often did) but he knew you couldn't win all the time.

"I used to be a fool." He father said, looking down at his son as they walked together. This was the first time Gakushuu had seen him all week; His Dad was so busy building up his new school now. "What is 'good'? Does it have any substance? Some people think it's good to burn people at the stake, others think it's good to blow up buildings. Are you going to do that?"

"No!" The child cried, looking at his father, wide-eyed. "Those things aren't good."

"Says who? Why is your version of good more valid than theirs, Asano?" Gakuhou asked. The child had no answer to that, so the man continued. "The only truth is in strength. Being weak is the absolute worst thing you can be. Would you like me to show you?"

"Show me?" The blond questioned, looking up at his father; The kid was sure there was a time not so long ago when his Dad wasn't like this, were the Chairman called him 'Gakushuu' and not 'Asano'.

"Come." The Chairman said, taking Gakushuu's hand firmly in his and walking across the street. It was clear this was a detour on the way home.  
They walked for a while, through back alleys and the side of town Gakushuu's mother told him he wasn't to take short cuts through.  
When they reached a certain alley way full of rubbish and rotting wood lying in a skip, the Chairman stopped suddenly.

"What are we doing here?" The boy questioned, raising an eyebrow. The stench here was awful, and by now it was getting dark.

"Look." The Chairman said simply, pointing over to a small group of men crouched over drunkenly by the skip. There were three of them, wearing dirty mismatched clothes, their hair unkempt.

"...Homeless people?" Gakushu questioned, confused. There weren't many of them in a town like Kunugigoaka. What could his father possibly be doing here?  
The Chairman grinned at stepped forwards.

"Hello, gentlemen. I've brought you a little something." Gakuhou said, in a cheery sing-song voice. The tramp's heads perked up immediately, like a dog called by it's master. Their eyes looked disorientated and unfocused, but they were younger than Gakushuu had first thought.

"Ah! Ah! Thank you!" One of them said, pulling himself to his feet, a feral look in his eye. The Chairman pulled out a wad of 1000 yen bills.

"Gimmie! Gimmie!" Another man chanted, his watery eyes honed in on the money.

"Hm? I will. But you'll have to work for it." Gakuhou said. The three tramps stilled, watching the Chairman with desperately eager looks, waiting for his command. "Beg."

The reaction was instant. The three men dropped to their knee's at Gakuhou's feet, and started begging fervently.  
"Please! Please give me the money! Please! I need it!"

Gakushuu took a step back, the child was horrified by this display of human desperation. Did these men have no pride? How could they allow themselves to be treated as dogs.

"This is what happens to the weak, Asano. Disgusting, isn't it?" The Chairman said, a wide smirk on his face. "Do you want to end up like this?"  
The boy shook his head, no.

"Then you must become the best. You must never loose. These men could be good or bad, but it doesn't matter either way. Because they're weak." Gakuhou explained as they clamored at his feet. Gakushuu just watched, vowing to himself he would never become like them.

The Chairman seemed satisfied with his response.He threw the notes into the air, turning and walking away towards his son, not even looking back when the three tramps started viciously attacking each other for the cash.

"You throw some money at them. If you demand them to beg for it, they will." His father said. "Even if your a child it wont stop then from debasing themselves and throwing away their pride at your feet."

"I don't want to." Asano said, trying to sound strong, but his voice sounded unsure.

"Do it." The Chairman commanded. "See how it feels to have power over over somebody. Or are you not strong enough to manage that?"

Gakushuu wanted to impress his father, didn't want to seen like a disappointment to him.

He dug into his pocket and threw out some change onto the floor. One of the tramps dived for it as if it were precious rubies.

His father's grin widened.  
"Do you feel that power you have over his life? You need to have that power over everyone in your life if you don't want to end up used like they are."  
Gakushuu's eyes lingered, unable to tear away from the scene before him. It was only when his father walked past him that he forced himself to leave.  
He never wanted to become like those men. He never wanted to be weak. His father was right- being weak was the worst thing!'

But now, Asano realised, he didn't want to be like the Chairman throwing the money either.


	9. Passing trains

Gakuhou Asano was sat in his office at home, replying to his many, many emails. Some from parents trying to kiss-up to him in hopes he'd give their child favourable treatment, and others from school officials and businessmen looking to make a deal. It was getting late. He glanced at the clock; Midnight. And he could still hear Asano moving around in the house downstairs. Really now, that boy had school in the morning! Stifling a yawn, Gakuhou got up out of his chair with the intent of going and telling his son to go to bed already. Gakuhou never would of done this before the events of this year. He had seen himself only as Asano's teacher, so it was never any of his concern what he ate, or when he slept, or where he went, so long as he was the best at everything But after the finals, the Chairman realised he needed to be more than just a teacher to his son, he needed to be a father. But how?  
After spending most of Gakushuu's lifetime being a distant non-affectionate figure, being anything but cold and harsh towards his son seemed impossible; Every time he attempted to be encouraging the usual spiel spilled from his mouth. Habits where hard to change, and he still couldn't help but want his son to be the strongest, even if the Chairman was starting to realise that wasn't always the best thing for him. He wanted to be a good father, but at the same time he couldn't let go of his old beliefs. That's why he had decided E class was the best place for his son; Korosensei had managed to transform the rest of E class from insecure losers to confident young people. Maybe he could work his usual magic on Asano too?

Being in A class full of people who practically worshiped Asano and put all responsibilities on him was making him grow up twisted. But something was still holding Gakuhou back from acting as a father to his son. Silently, he walked across the corridor towards the source of the noise- the bathroom at the other side of the house. Gakushuu had to be up in a few hours, what was he thinking?The bathroom door was slightly ajar, so the Chairman took it upon himself to push it open and walk in.

What he saw shocked him; Asano was stood over the sink, a pair of sharp silver scissors pointed towards himself. But what caught the Chairman's attention was the blood-red gash across his son's stomach.

Asano turned to face him, his eyes widened, caught off guard. Gakuhou Asano always thought himself a rational man, but for once, he was irrational, and jumped to conclusions. Before his son had the chance to open his mouth to explain himself, The Chairman grabbed his wrist, quickly forcing him to drop the scissors. Self-harm was a growing problem in youths these days but the Chairman never dreamed his son would partake in it. An image of Ikeda flashed in his mind.

"What are you thinking?" Gakuhou hissed. Usually when he spoke to his son he kept a composed voice devoid of any emotion, but tonight he could not muster that self control. Asano looked at him, eyes full of confusion.

"I don't know wh- " he started to say, but Gakuhou cut him off

"Why would you do something so stupid?" The Chairman said forcefully. "Whatever your problems are, however your feeling, harming yourself is the worst way to deal with it!" Gakuhou suddenly felt a flood of guilt overwhelm him. Was this his fault? Had being so distant and harsh towards his son caused him to self-implode?

"You think.. I did this to myself?" Asano asked after a pause, confusion in his voice. His father showing him any type of concern was uncharted territory for him, and Gakushuu wasn't sure if he could actually believe it. Slowly, he pulled his wrist out of his father's grip. This was weird. He'd never seen the man look so close to frantic, so freaked out- so human

"You were cutting yourself with the scissors." The Chairman said almost robotically.

"I got this injury days ago- I was just cutting off the dressing with the scissors." Gakushuu explained, still in sort of disbelief over the situation- he'd never had his father show concern towards him before. Part of him was convinced that this wasn't real. The Chairman's eyes widened a fraction in understanding, then promptly narrowed again.

"And how did you manage to injure yourself there?" The Chairman asked, the usual emotionless spike of ice back in his voice as he spoke.

Gakushuu looked to the side, briefly. Well. There was no point in concealing the truth now.

"Do you recognise the name 'Yoshinaka?" Gakushuu asked slowly. It took the Chairman only a second for him to recall.

"An old student of the school from years ago- what relevance does this have?" He asked sharply. Gaksuhuu resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Well apparently, he is still fairly irate that you sent him to E class, and is blaming all his current problems on it." Gakushuu said with feigned nonchalance. Although internally he was squirming. "So he came after me as some sort of half-baked revenge-plot against you."

The Chairman didn't respond, and silence weighed down the room, Gakushuu a was waiting to be berated for being 'too weak' and allowing himself to be hurt by a lowlife like Yoshinaka.

"So he might of managed to slice me with his knife- but he was the one who was unconscious in the end." Gakushuu said, still with that forced air of casualness, trying desperately hard not to seem weak (so he neglected to mention that it was Nagisa who had saved him, and felt strangely guilty about that.). "Besides, he had two other half-wit cronies with him; not that I'm making excuses. Those two ended up unconscious too."

""Why didn't you tell me?" Gakuhou demanded, grabbing his son's shoulders his voice low and dangerous. The look in his eyes were unreadable.

"Why would I?" Gakushuu snapped back, a little taken aback by his father's response. Their eyes met, violet glaring into violet. He wont ask for my help- even if he's in danger The Chairman realised. That's the way I've made him. Of course he refuses to rely on me; I've never been there for him as as a parent.

Gakuhou realised why he felt as if he couldn't act as a father towards his son- He was afraid. Afraid that showing him any kind of affection would lead to him ending up like Ikeda. Because I would be destroyed if anything happened to you. Because I'm your father and I want to protect you. Was what Gakuhou wanted to say, but the words wouldn't escape his tongue. His pride wouldn't allow it. Instead he fixed an expression of indifference on his face.

"Because. It means your self-defense still needs work." Gakuhou said, then added with a half smile that held the slightest traces of kindness. Gakushuu raised an eyebrow. "I suppose I'll have to take it upon myself to teach you. Be warned, I wont go easy on you, Gakushuu."

Gakushuu looked at him, surprised for a moment, before giving a grin of his own. "Well, I'm not going to hold back either. Even if you are an old man." He said. Gakuhou chortled.

"You are dreaming if you think a cat in hell's chance of beating me." The Chairman said, before placing a hand on his son's head. He almost flinched away from the contact, but the atmosphere had lightened uncharacteristically, which was uncharted territory for the both of them. "Especially if you're sleep deprived. I suggest you finish patching up your war wound then head to bed."

"Hm, isn't that the pot calling the kettle black? I don't think you've ever slept for more than two hours in a 24 hour period." Gakushuu said, that smirk still on his face. Gakuhou had said it before, but slowly and surely, Korosensei and his E class was changing him- both of him. Sometimes the changes made him uneasy; He didn't like dealing with the unknown, but in the back of his mind, Gakuhou knew that if the two of them carried on the path they were travelling it would of been a trajectory straight to hell. A cold emotionless hell.

"Because I'm an adult. And you are a child." Gakuhou said, heading out the bathroom. before saying again. "Go to bed."

Gakushuu watched him go. Well that was Strange. He didn't know what to think, nor how to feel. He'd known the man all his life, but he still couldn't tell what the Chairman was thinking at all- Was the man just being demeaning, or did he actually care? but that was impossible, right?. The way his father's mind worked was the one thing he could never learn. Oh well. He supposed that it was rather late, maybe he should go to bed soon..

Gakuhou headed off to his office. Well, taking revenge on a certain former student of his was yet another thing he'd have to add to his 'to-do' list. He wondered how exactly he could make Yoshinaka pay for hurting his son..


	10. A change of tides

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gakushuu returns to school after that hectic weekend and finds himself slowly changing without realising it.

"A play!?" E class exclaimed, eyes wide, most of them leaning onto their desks in utter surprise. Their teacher only nodded while grinning at them.

"Yes, a play. The School has decided that E class will put on a performance during the lunch hour of the drama festival." Korosensei explained, with a nod of his massive yellow head. There was a glint of excitement in his black beady eyes.

"A play? More like a spectacle." Terasaka grumbled. "It's alright for the kids at the main school, since they get assured entry into Kunugigaoka high. But we have entrance exams to study for."

"This school thinks it's students should be able to balance studying with things like memorising lines." Asano spoke out. "Besides, something like this should be easy for this class who managed to beat A class and train to be assassins at the same time."

He said the last part partially begrudgingly, but it was true; After seeing first hand how hard E class class worked, and how they had triumphed, there was no way he could deny how strong they'd become. Suddenly he was aware that the rest of E class had gone incredibly quiet, but they were all looking at him with knowing eyes and wide grins.

"What is it?" Gakushuu grumbled, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable as 28 pairs of eyes bored into him, all with smug smirks on their faces.

"Asano! You are coming to accept E class into your heart more and more! I'm so happy!" Korosensei gushed, suddenly right in front of Asano, tears of joy streaming down his face as he gripped the boy's hands in his.

"Asano actually said something nice about us? I think he'll might freeze over." Nakamura said with a grin.

"Looks as though the ice-prince has thawed. So you do like us!" Maehara said with an equally teasing grin.

"You're all being ridiculous. Stop over thinking things." Asano said dismissively, unable to stop his voice from rising. He could feel his cheeks heating up.

"You shouldn't tease him too much, he's shy." Karma taunted, a glint of mischief in his eyes.

"I am not shy, Akabane." Asano huffed, crossing his arms and looking the other way. "You're impossible! I'm never saying anything nice about any of you ever again. Honestly, everyone in this class is so ludicrous."

"Well, you're in this class as well, so I guess that makes you ludicrous too, Asano." Rio said with a chuckle. Nagisa watched on, a gentle smile on his face. It really had seemed that Gakushuu had steadily found a place among the class. It was refreshing to see him being teased like this without any malice, and despite his frustration, it was clear that Gakushuu wasn't really taking any of this to heart and didn't really mind joining in. Nagisa was sure that back in the main school, Gakushuu would never have the opportunity to interact with his peers so freely and so equally, since he played the role of  _'supreme leader_ ' there. Here he was just ' _classmate'_.

What happened last Friday had been scary, and being drunk and having a hangover was no fun, but a small part of Nagisa was glad that he'd had the opportunity to help Gakushuu and prove to him that having support really was useful.

"Anyway, we should decide type of play we should do." Isogai said, taking back control of the classroom. The class quietened down as they paused in thought.

"I volunteer Nagisa to play the leading lady!" Karma said with a wide grin on his face. "I think we should do a story about Sada Abe's life."

"Karma dont volunteering me for weird things! This is a middle school play, we can't do Sada Abe. And what do you mean leading  _lady_?" Nagisa said, horrified. A few members of the class laughed. "I'm not going to do any more cross-dressing!"

Asano raised an eyebrow,  _what did he mean ' **any more** ' cross-dressing?_ He decided he'd rather not ask.

"But it suited you so well all the other times, look!" Karma said, getting out his phone and showing a picture. Asano glanced over, his eyes widening when he saw it was a picture of Nagisa. But not just any picture; Nagisa was wearing a black vest top with a red tartan skirt and tights. His hair was in its usual pigtails with the addition of ribbons. The Nagisa in the picture looked very candid, as if he wasn't aware the picture was being taken. If Asano didn't know better, he'd assume it was a picture of a cute girl.

Nagisa noticed Asano's bemused look, and waved his hands out defensively. "Asano, it's not what you think- we were at an island and I- "

"You don't have to explain it. What you and Akabane do in your spare time is up to you, I'm not here to judge." Asano said, putting his hands up, a neutral expression on his face.

"It was just because there was this bad guy and we were trying to infiltrate- "

"Just because you dress up in woman's clothing and then Akabane takes pictures of you doesn't mean I think any different of either of you." Asano said, still with that infuriatingly neutral expression.

"Wait- wait- you're making me sound way too shady there." Karma said, with a slightly forced smile. "What actually happened was- "

"Come on everyone! We're getting way off track for this discussion about the school play!" Isogai said, interrupting them before Karma could finish his explanation. "Does anyone have any other ideas?"

"Maybe Kayano could be the lead? She was really wonderful at acting for the children when we spent that two weeks at the daycare." Kanzaki suggested, glancing over at Kayano hopefully. "She really kept them engaged."

"Oh, I'd actually rather work with props." Kayano said politely, a forced-looking smile on her face. "I know not sure if I could act in that type of play."

"Right! So you could entertain a bunch of babies, I doubt those tricks would work on middle schoolers!" Terasaka laughed rather obnoxiously. All of a sudden, he was hit with a book so hard he was almost knocked off his feet.

The class turned, rather surprised to see the one who had thrown it was none other than Kayano. She was still smiling, although a rather pissed-off aura radiated off her.

"So yes. I'll take care of the props." She repeated, before turning back to Kanzaki. "Yukiko, you should be the leading lady, you are the class idol after all."

"Well, if nobody else want to." Kanzaki said, blushing lightly. Sugino's eyes lit up.

"I uh- wouldn't mind being the leading man with you Kanzaki." Sugino offered, a noticeable blush rising to his cheeks.

"I could write the script." Hazama offered. She was a sullen looking girl with chin-length curly black hair and droopy reddish-brown eyes. Asano hadn't spoke to her really other than that time in PE, but he noticed she was almost always hanging around with Terasaka's gang and reading Gothic literature. "I can't be the only one who's a slightly irked that the main school have decided we should be a spectacal performance during their lunch time. Let's pay them back with our words, after all, words have the ability to wound others.."

 _Well, that was ominous. Isn't she a ray on sunshine,_  Gakushuu thought sardonically. The whole class seemed to suddenly have gotten a darker atmosphere.

"Oh! And Sensei wants to be the star of the show!" Korosensei cried out, an excited expression on his face. The class gave him a disbelieving look.

"Isn't it a little counter-intuitive to have an international secret as the spotlight in a play?" Rio said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah Sensei! That's just unrealistic!" Maehara said. Hazama however just paused in thought.

"Hmm, a story were Sensei can play the main part. Were Kanzaki and Sugino can be a couple, were we can strike fear into the heart of the main school." Hazama muttered. "I'm going to take everyone's feelings and all our objectives into account to write this script."

"What about you?" Karma asked, turning to Gakushuu. "You love being centre of attention, you seem like you'd want to be someone front and centre in the play."

"I'm not sure what you're trying to imply, Akabane, but I'm not an attention seeker. I can't help it if I naturally draw people's attention." Asano said, with all the humility of an Emperor addressing his subjects. "I'd rather not have an acting role. Maybe I could assist with music?"

"Whoa, Asano not wanting to be centre of attention. That really is a shock." Karma said playfully. Asano would never admit it, but Karma was maybe a tiny bit right about how much Gakushuu liked to be centre of attention, indeed he'd played the lead role in school plays countless times, performed at concerts in and out of school and even spelling bees he did when he was younger were something of a performance. But this was different. The thought of having to get up on stage in front of the rest of the school, including his former classmates felt like he was opening himself up to ridicule; Him being sent to E class was still something that polarized the students of the main school, with many of them still wanting him back, and others satisfied with seeing him being knocked down a peg. Just thinking about putting himself in front of all those expectations and judgement in a spectacle of a play made Asano's stomach lurch with nerves... Not that he'd ever admit to such weak feelings.

"The music huh?" Hazama mused, already writing away at the first draft of the play. "Are you thinking of sorting out the a CD or playing an instrument?"

"I can play an instrument.." Asano offered, a slight smile on his face. "Violin, acoustic guitar, piano, accordion, flute, saxophone, Xylophone, the drums, electric guitar- so whatever you think suits."

"He's such a show off!" Maehara grumbled.

"Asano, how many instruments can you play?" Isogai asked, eyes wide with amazement. Asano merely shrugged.

"All of them. Although guitar is my speciality." Asano said simply with a shrug. The class stared at him in disbelief.

"There are over 2000 instruments in the world, there is no way you have even heard of all of them, let alone can play all of them!" Nakamura exclaimed.

"Prove me wrong." Asano challenged, the a competitive flame in his eyes. Nagisa couldn't help but laugh slightly. Sure, they were getting way off topic, but it was nice to see Asano let his guard down and join in for once. He seemed more relaxed than usual, and not as concerned about keeping up an inhumanly perfect image.

* * *

E class may have a play to rehearse for and entrance exams to study for, but that didn't mean they allowed themselves to slack on their Assassination training. Even after school, several pupils stayed behind to train. Unlike Gakushuu, most people's parents don't exactly know they're precious children were training to kill a super being, so it wasn't as if they could train with their knives and guns at home. Besides. It was more fun training with everyone else.

For the first time, Gakushuu decided to join them instead of training by himself. It was definitely just on a whim, and not because of the events of the weekend had changed his feelings towards E class.. or so he told himself.

So that day, after class had finished, he went to go and fetch his PE uniform from the cupboard. All of a sudden, he felt a rush of air, and his Mach-20 teacher had appeared in front of him.

"Asano-kun! Your father informed me that you had a rather eventful weekend." Korosensei said to the startled strawberry blond. "I wish I'd been able to help, but from what I can tell, maybe things worked out better by you having the chance to work with one of your classmates; Nagisa. I hope that may of opened your eyes to the value of teamwork."

"I'll admit it. Nagisa Shiota helped me out of a difficult situation." Gakushuu said, just confessing he had needed help was hard, but despite his many moral flaws he usually tried to be an honest person. He wondered when his father had told Korosensei about this, the image of the Chairman gossiping on the phone with the E class teacher was odd. "I would likely of been in a lot of trouble without him."

Even now, Gakushuu wasn't entirely sure what Yoshinaka would of done with him if Nagisa hadn't intervened and he'd been drugged and kidnapped. Would Gakushuu of been held to ransom? Beaten up?Tortured? Something worse? He'd rather not think about it.

"I'm glad that it all worked out in the end. But as a teacher, my pupils being hurt is something I cannot stand for! Especially by someone so dangerous!" Korosensei said, fuming, his cheeks red and puffed out. "Luckily, the man who attacked you is currently in police custody. There may of been a tip-off about him hoarding drugs with the intent to supply in his property."

"So what you're saying is, you planted illegal substances on him then called the police." Gakushuu said with a completely straight face. Korosensei gasped, horrified.

"Of course not! I am a teacher! I could never- WOULD never, handle drugs! What the police found belonged to Yoshinaka himself!" Korosensei said, his usually smiling mouth frozen in a gasp. "Planting drugs on people is never okay! We need to talk about your morals young man!"

"You're starting to sound just like my old ethics teacher." Gakushuu said, peeved. "I suppose the important thing is that there's one less dangerous person on the streets."

"Police custody may currently be the safest place for Yoshinaka. Your father was very intent on finding him and enacting his own justice." Korosensei said, a shudder running through his body as if he was remembering something terrifying. Gakushuu frowned; Part of him found it strange that the Chairman would even care about some criminal nobody, even if he had hurt his son, part of Gakushuu still instinctively felt as if it were his own fault for being weak. "A-anyway, enough about that! I'm just glad my beloved students are okay now. You have a present- it's from Karasuma-Sensei."

* * *

A few minutes later, Asano stepped out onto the field wearing his new PE uniform; Karasuma sensei's gift had been a outfit fit for battle; It was grey combat trousers with a hooded jacket. The material was light weight, but hardened upon impact protecting the wearer from injuries. The material made minimum sound for maximum stealth, and the user could easily paint camo over it.

In other words, it was the perfect attire for combat. Asano made a mental note to thank Karasuma-Sensei next time he saw him.

"Asano! They finally got a PE uniform made for you; you really  _are_  part of the class." Isogai said as soon as he noticed him. Asano looked around at other pupils, they too were wearing an attire identical to his. He'd seen them wear it before when they were doing something particularly physical in PE.

"I'll admit, this uniform is impressive." Asano said, tugging at it. He didn't want to seem like an excited child, but it really was, well,  _cool._  For a moment he felt a glimmer of gratitude for being sent to E class and having the opportunity to experience things like this. "Are you staying behind for training too, Isogai?"

"I wish I could, but I have a shift today." Isogai admitted. "Oh- and could you maybe keep that on the down low?"

Before Asano could answer, Terasaka interjected.

"Don't worry, Asano has to keep his mouth shut, we won the pole toppling competition, remember?" Terasaka said with a chortle. Asano frowned, crossing his arms and huffing at the memory of that unfortunate failure.

"Aw, don't get all pouty on us." Karma snickered, taking his attention away from his spar with Nagisa to join in the teasing.

"I am not being pouty, Akabane. You should stop being so impossible or else." Asano said, although it didn't sound very threatening.

"Or else what? You'll challenge me to a pole toppling competition?" Karma retorted. Even Nagisa couldn't help but laugh at that one. Gakushuu's mouth twitched for just a fraction of a second, but of course, Karma Akabane noticed.

"No way. Did I just make Gakushuu Asano laugh?" Karma said sounding completely gobsmacked. "The heavens will open! blood will rain from the sky! The dead will rise from the grave. Look out for the four horsemen; the apocalypse is surely upon us!"

"Honestly you're ridiculous." Gakushuu said, incredulous. The rest of E class just laughed.

* * *

It was inevitable that Karma ended up sparring with Gakushuu. The tension crackling between the two made it impossible not to want to break it.

All while Gakushuu was doing warm-up exercises, his eye kept catching Karma's. Gakushuu remembered how Karma had took the top spot from him in the exams. Yes. He definitely wanted payback for that, and for Karma generally being a pain. As he thought this, a wide blood thirsty grin unconsciously grew on his face. (' _Wah! Asano looks extra scary today'_  Kurahashi exclaimed to Yada).

As soon as Gakushuu finished the warm up, Karma sauntered over. There was a cocky grin on his face, but his chin was dipped and his mercury eyes looked at Gakushuu head on. Karma was no longer someone who would underestimate his opponent.

"Fancy practicing sparring together?" Karma challenged. His voice was deceptively light. Asano pretended to pause in thought as if he was taking time to consider Karma's preposition.

"Hmm, I suppose if you really want me to I could." Asano replied as if he hadn't been wanting to do this for a while now. Karma grinned.

"I understand if your hesitant. But I assure you, there's no need to be intimidated. I'll go easy on you."

"If anyone should be intimidated it's you, Akabane." Asano retorted, facing him head on, pointing his green rubber knife at him.

A few of the other students who had been sparring turned to look at the two squaring off. ( _'I hope this doesn't get too violent'_  Takebayashi said, pausing in his spar against Nagisa).

The two faced each other for a few moments, both of them perfectly still. A second past, then suddenly, both of them struck. It wasn't clear who made the first move, but the fight was on. Karma and Asano were both exceptionally gifted physically and mentally and both of them had combat training (from martial arts to Assassin training). Needless to say, the fight between them was intense.

Nagisa couldn't help but watch. It was interesting how their different styles interacted; Karma was wilder, more instinctual, while Asano's moves were more precise and disciplined. His years of martial arts training, and Karma's years of fighting thugs were evident. The two styles clashed against each other, so fast that Nagisa was sure if he didn't have combat training himself, he wouldn't be able to follow. Even he wasn't sure who would win.

Asano went in for a punch but Karma suddenly struck out his leg. Instead of kicking him, however, the other simply whacked his foot into the dirt below, effectively kicking dust into Asano's eyes. Asano let out a cry of shock, covering his eyes and quickly backing away, but Karma managed to land a blow on him.

"That's a dirty move, Akabane!" He hissed. Karma just laughed.

"When your an assassin you have to use all the means at your disposal. If you're too ridged in your fighting style then you're just setting yourself up for failure." Karma explained with a wide grin on his face. "Give up yet?"

"You should be so lucky!"

The fight continued for what seemed like ages with neither boy willing to give up. Half the other students had gotten changed and headed home. Nagisa still stayed and watched, wanting to know the outcome. Both of them managed to land a few blows on the other, and their stamina was starting to run out. They faced each other, both panting heavily, sweat staring to appear on their foreheads. ' _They must be close to their limit now_ ' Nagisa thought. _'They're both taking their sparring way too seriously! At this rate, one of them might pass out'._

Nagisa's train of thought was broken when the sound of fist hitting flesh resonated through the air.

Asano had managed to hit Karma across the face. It was a hard blow Karma stumbled back slightly, and for a second, Nagisa thought it was over. However Karma just about steadied himself before launching forwards, straight into Asano.

Taken by surprise, Asano toppled over, Karma literally on top off him. Asano glared up at Karma's stupid smirking face. The red head had managed to pin both Asano's wrists to the floor and was straddling him so as to restrict his movement (although Karma was being careful not to put too much weight were he knew Asano was injured). Asano attempted to pull himself free, but it was near impossible from this disadvantageous position.

"Give up yet?" Karma asked, grinning wolfishly. His eyes were practically lighting up with delight at his apparent victory. Asano huffed, trying with renewed vigour to free his hands and pull Karma off him. Finally, even he had to admit it was impossible.

"Fine. You won this round. Now get off me." Asano admitted through gritted teeth. Loosing was frustrating, but it wasn't tearing him apart inside like it usually did. Maybe he's just worn himself out too much to be inconsolable. Or maybe it was because he respected Karma so much as an opponent loosing to him, although annoying, wasn't the end of the world.

"Wait! I didn't catch that. Could you repeat it?" Karma taunted, eyes glinting with mischief. "Hey Nagisa! Can you come over here and record this?"

Nagisa laughed awkwardly. Asano took it back. Loosing to Karma  _was_  the end of the world.

"I'm not saying it again! Now get off me!" Asano hissed. Karma laughed, but actually complied, rolling off Asano and standing up.

"Fine." Karma said, offering Asano a hand. "And when your injury has fully healed, we'll have to fight again. I want you to give me a proper match next time."

After a moments hesitation, Asano took his hand and stood up.

"Considering that wasn't a 'proper match' you look completely worn out." Asano teased.

"Let's not forgot who lost this time.. second place." Karma replied, using that dreaded nickname. Nagisa ran over to them to intervene before they started fighting again and really did kill each other.

"Have you seen the time? We should head home!" The blue haired boy interjected. "I don't really want to walk down this hill once it gets dark. The Mosquitos of a night here are brutal."

Asano glanced up at the sky. It really was getting dark. "It's later than I thought it was." He admitted. Together, the three remaining E class students went back to the school house to get changed. Just as Asano was buttoning up his shirt, he noticed a few unread texts on his phone. They were from his father, the first one was from about 15 minutes ago, and the latest one from a few seconds ago.

' _You missed dinner so I've left your plate in the fridge.'_

_'I take it you're coming back home late today.'_

_'What time are you planning on coming home. Reminder that it is a school night.'_

Asano frowned at the texts, perplexed. No matter how late he'd stayed out in the past he'd never received these sorts of texts from his father before. His friends always had, but never him. His father almost seemed... worried.. like he had done the night before. It was so strange and out of character for him. _Why did he suddenly care about when Asano came home? In the past the only thing the seemed to Chairman care about was Asano's performance at school. Why was his father acting this way now? Did he have an ulterior motive (or did he really just care?)._

Asano texted back ' _Was training. On my way home now._ '

He didn't like how a few simple text message could give him so many confusing feelings, but it was the exact opposite from what he'd come to expect from his aloof father who seemed to treat him merely as a tool or a trophy.

"Asano, Karma are you ready?" Nagisa asked, breaking him from his train of thought. Asano gathered up his bags and shoved those thoughts to the back of his head.

"Let's go."

The three of them walked down the hill, b the time they reached the bottom the sky was properly dark. When they reached the edge of the trees, Karma turned to the other two. "The new sonic Ninja game came out at the arcade yesterday. You two want to come check it out?"

"I'm not wasting my time playing a mind-numbing video game." Asano replied. As far as he could remember, he'd never played a video game in his life, let alone owned a gaming console.  _He had more productive things to do with his time!_

"Of course, Supreme Overlord stick-in-the-mud. I should of known you'd have a strong aversion to anything considered fun." Karma said sardonically. "Nagisa?"

"Sorry Karma, my mother doesn't like me staying out too late on a school night." Nagisa replied. Karma shrugged.

"Your loss." He said.

"Don't your parents mind?" Asano asked, not sure why he was suddenly interested in the others parents. Karma laughed.

"My parents took a flight to India yesterday and they won't be back for another week." The red head said flippantly. "I could stay out all night if I wanted to and they wouldn't even know!- catch you two later."

Asano could of been mistaken, but he was sure he heard a hint of bitterness in Karma's voice. He supposed that even someone as seemingly carefree as Karma had his own issues.

* * *

Nagisa noticed Asano frowning at his phone slightly as the two of them walked home together.  _Had he received some sort of text that was bothering him?_

"Something the matter?" Nagisa asked tentatively, glancing sideways at the other.

"No, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Asano replied. Nagisa resisted the urge to roll his eyes; Typical.  _Of course Asano still wanted to keep up appearances, he may of mellowed out a little since he'd joined E class, but old habits die hard_. If he wanted an honest answer, he'd have to find the perfect moment to ask. Nagisa once again glanced at Asano, carefully analysing the frequency of his emotions until the most opportune moment when Asano's guard was down.

"Because it seems like there's something bothering you. Is there?" Nagisa asked, being careful to keep his voice disarmingly gentle.

"It's the Chairman; He's suddenly started acting well.. like a father. Or at least it seems like he's trying to. I'm not sure why he's doing it though. It's so confusing. I'm sure he must have some sort of ulterior motive but I don't know what." Asano replied without thinking. He suddenly covered his mouth realising what he'd let slip on accident. He glared at Nagisa with dangerous violet eyes, his aura suddenly becoming more threatening.  _Okay, so maybe getting Asano to spill details about his personal life was predictably a good way to piss him off_ , Nagisa realised.

"Don't worry, I won't mention anything you say to me to anyone else." Nagisa assured with an awkward smile. "Not even Karma. In fact.. especially not Karma."

"Good because I wouldn't let you off lightly if I caught you gossiping about me." Asano said. Nagisa could sense by the wavelength of his emotions that Asano's guard was firmly raised now. Suspicion and annoyance radiated off him. Nagisa realised to get him to open up a little more, he'd have to even the playing-field by telling Asano a little bit of his own personal information.

"I maybe understand where you're coming from.. a little. Until recently, my relationship with my mother was pretty dysfunctional. We've started trying to mend things, but it can take some time to adjust. Even though I didn't like how my mother acted towards me before, I'd gotten used to it. So sometimes it feels strange for her to act different now." Nagisa said in a calm voice. Truth be told, he didn't like talking about his home life. He'd spent all of middle school keeping hidden the extent of his families dysfunction. But he thought if sharing his experiences helped Asano at all it would be worth it. Indeed, when he glanced at Asano, it appeared the other was looking at him with an interested expression.

"When you say dysfunctional.. what do you mean exactly?" Asano asked with an uncharacteristic gentleness to his voice. Nagisa sighed slightly.. this was still hard to talk about. He knew he could just refuse and Asano likely wouldn't push it, but once again he felt compelled to talk if it could help the other.

"My mother had incredibly strict parents.. all her life growing up she was never aloud to do the things she wanted to do; Wear nice clothes, grow her hair out, pursue her interests. I think because of that she tried to give herself a second chance at living the life she wanted by living life through me." Nagisa explained. wistfully, he touched the ends of his lengthly blue hair. "So she had me act as the ' _daughter'_  she always wanted and keep my hair long, she always used to dress me up in 'pretty' clothes. She's always been very overprotective, I had to study the subjects she wanted me to.. she had a short temper and when she felt as if I wasn't trying my hardest to live up to her expectations she... snapped."

Asano looked at Nagisa with wide shocked eyes. He knew Nagisa's relationship with his mother must be somewhat complicated because of how he acted back when he'd been drugged, but he had no idea it had been that bad.  _I mean, who forces their son to pretend to be a girl? That would be humiliating and demeaning for anyone but especially a teenage boy. Especially one who's already as self conscious as Nagisa. Maybe that was part of the reason he was so self conscious?_

Noticing Asano's concerned gaze, Nagisa laughed awkwardly.

"Of course, things are getting better now. A few months ago some things happened and she's finally starting to respect me as my own person, not just as an extension of herself." Nagisa explained, his mind drifting back to when his Mother had tried to force him out of E class but ended up realising how much he had grown. It was a fond memory now.

"Even if she's trying to make things better, can you forgive her? For what she put you through for all those years?" Asano asked averting his gaze slightly.  _Well, he doesn't mince words, that's a loaded question_ , Nagisa thought,  _But I have a feeling he isn't just talking about the relationship between me and my mother._ Nagisa didn't know much about Asano's relationship with his father but he could tell there was a lot of dysfunction and tension.

"I want to forgive her." Nagisa started. That much was true, he really did want a happy relationship with his mother. "But right now it can be hard to forgive her completely.. Maybe I will one day, but right now it can be hard to forget how bad she made me feel."

Nagisa was overwhelmed from guilt just from saying that. His mother had said she was sorry so he felt as if he should be able to forgive her right away. But truth be told the hurt stuck, even when he didn't want it to.

"That's understandable." Asano said, actually managing to sound somewhat assuring.

"So?" Nagisa asked, managing to look Asano straight in the eye as they walked. "What about the Chairman? Do you think you can forgive him and accept him as your father?"

Nagisa knew he was prying, but he couldn't help but ask. Besides, he'd spilled more than enough about his own personal life. Asano looked slightly surprised, but after a heavy sigh started talking.

"I don't know. For as long as I can remember he's never acted like a father to me. It never bothered me though." Asano said. _Okay, that may be a complete lie, but whatever_. "But there are some things he's done this year in particular that have really irked me; Trying to convince me to poison E class's food at the festival, beating my foreign friends to a bloody pulp, brainwashing my classmates.. And that time he punched me in front of A class did actually hurt."

"Wait what was that about poisoning our food? And violence against you and others..?" Nagisa murmured incredulously. Asano's relationship with his father was more twisted than Nagisa had originally thought;  _Half the things Asano had listed were straight up criminal! Should he like, call someone..?_  Then Nagisa remembered his own mother had drugged him and tried to convince him to burn down a building.. Okay so maybe both their parents could be pretty twisted. "You know what: never mind."

"Besides. How do I know this  _'fatherly_ ' act will last? He'll probably grow tired of it soon, and if I get used to it that will throw me totally out of sync." Gakushuu said, acting as if he were talking about school work or a business venture. But Nagisa recognised what he was truly saying ' _I'm scared to believe in a good thing because I won't be able to stand the pain of having it pulled away as soon as I get used to it._ ' It was a feeling Nagisa knew well, because even now he harbored doubt towards his mother's change of heart. He was scared that one day the relative stability at home will be ripped away from him and it'll be back to being treated as a puppet again.

"It can be hard to trust someone who's let you down so many times before." Nagisa said, a bittersweet expression on his face. "But there's no reward without risk, right?"

Asano nodded thoughtfully. Speaking to people about personal problems wasn't normally his style, in fact, it was something he usually went to all lengths to avoid. But somehow, speaking to Nagisa made him feel.. better.

The two of them continued walking in comfortable silence until they reached the station were the two of them went their separate ways.

"See you tomorrow, Asano." Nagisa said, waving goodbye. "Hopefully we'll have better luck at killing our Sensei then."

"Who needs luck when you have all the strength our class has?" Asano said cockily before pausing briefly, averting his gaze to the side. "And speaking to you about those things helped me put matters into perspective so... I'm grateful. Goodbye."

As soon as he said that, Asano quickly turned away and began walking home quickly. Nagisa smiled slightly ' _Is the great Gakushuu Asano being bashful?_ ' Before he got to know him, Nagisa wouldn't of thought it even possible. But if there was one thing Nagisa had learned this year was that people have all sorts of hidden faucets to their personality, you just have to uncover them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry not much exciting happened in this chapter, but this chapter is more character focused.
> 
> Gakushuu has changed quite a lot since the start of the story in terms of how he views himself and others. Of course, his old views remain in some capacity, but he's beginning to let himself relax a bit more, and show a tiny bit more vulnerability. Of course, this isn't an easy transition.
> 
> The incident with Yoshinaka reminded the Chairman that Gakushuu really is still a kid and maybe he should be looking after him better. Of course, this sudden change is very strange for Gakushuu, who has a lot of mixed feelings (Which he discussed with Nagisa). I'm glad I manged to write a situation were Nagisa gives Gakushuu advice on dealing with a dysfunctional parent. The part were Nagisa reads Gakushuu's emotional wavelength to find the best time to ask him is ripped of from the scene in Korotan C, were Nagisa does that to find out Gakushuu's feelings about Princess Lea.
> 
> I enjoyed writing Karma and Gakushuu's spar. I had a hard time deciding who'd win because they're both so strong. In the end I copped out and went for 'Karma won but it didn't completely count because Gakushuu is slightly injured'.
> 
> Anyway Please review and let me know what you thought!


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